Levelling Up The Cultural Impact of Cont

Levelling Up
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2016
Levelling Up:
The Cultural Impact of Videogames
Edited by
Editor
Brittany Kuhn and Alexia Bhéreur-Lagounaris
Inter-Disciplinary Press
Oxford, United Kingdom
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Table of Contents
Introduction: ‘Levelling Up’ and the Impact of Videogames vii
Part I Theoretical Impact of Videogames
Aristotle Goes to the Arcade: The Ethics of Videogames, 3

False Pleasure and the Good Life
Declan J. Humphreys
We Are Legion: Artificial Intelligence in BioWare’s 11

Mass Effect
Thomas Faller
Theories of Gaming: Are Video Games Text, Game, 21

or Somewhere in Between?
Brittany Kuhn
Ludic Narratology: Creating a Theory of Structure 29

in Choice-Based Video Game Narratives
Kieran Wilson
Observing Iterative Design on the Game Dominaedro 39

Vicente Martin Mastrocola
Part II Individual Impact by Videogames
Cognitive Dissonance as an Ethical Instrument 51

of Metamodern Aesthetic in Spec Ops: The Line
Felix Schniz
When All You Can Be Is about Who You Already Are: 63

Dragon Age: Inquisition and the Uncovering of
Real-Life Behaviour Patterns
Shauna Ashley Bennis
Designing the Peaceable Kingdom: The Canadian-Ness 73

of Dragon Age: Inquisition
René Schallegger
Romance Is Difficult: Choice, Agency and the Sexual 85

Identity of NPCs in BioWare’s Dragon Age: Inquisition
Veit Frick
A (Dis)United Galaxy: The Silenced Voices of 93
Non-Human Minorities in BioWare’s Mass Effect
Vanessa Erat
Part III Social Impact through Videogames
Massively Multiplayer Online Science 105

Attila Szantner
Is Citizen Science Gaming the Next ‘Level Up’ 111

for Social Impact Games? Crossing Public Involvement,
Technological Accessibility and Game Design
Alexia Bhéreur-Lagounaris
Understanding the Fanboy Culture: Their Place 121

and Role within the Games Industry
Bradley James and B.D. Fletcher
Archives, Identity and Apparatus: Let’s Play and 137

Videogame Fandom
Thomas Hale
Grand Theft Auto V: Capitalist Hyperreality in the 151

Age of Cynical Reason
Simon Murphy
Introduction:
‘Levelling Up’ and the Impact of Videogames

Ask almost any videogame player what it means to ‘level up,’ and they will
describe some combination of gaining a certain number of experience points or
developing a certain number of skills; the higher the points or skills, the higher the
level, the more rewards for the player. If such a concept can be applied to life
outside a game, then this 7th Global Videogame Cultures and the Future of
Interactive Entertainment at Mansfield College, Oxford, United Kingdom over the
weekend of 11-13 September 2015 was just that. And it impacted all of us, leaving
no man or woman behind. But how can a conference do that? What was the recipe
of this multiplayer levelling?
There is a study about this feeling of connectedness and shared interests—
Woolley, et al.’s ‘Evidence for a Collective Intelligence Factor in the Performance
of Human Groups’—which states that:
This ‘c factor’ is not strongly correlated with the average or

maximum individual intelligence of group members but is
correlated with the average social sensitivity of group members,
the equality in distribution of conversational turn-taking, and the
proportion of females in the group.1
This conference checked off each of those factors: it facilitated an equality in turn
taking, there were a higher number of females in the group, and there was a great
amount of sensitivity of group members. Even if the level up was something we
did not realise until the last day of the conference, it happened in spades.
Due to the interdisciplinary nature of the videogame as a medium, games
studies conferences include scholars from disciplines not often thought to be seen
together; this conference was no different. Delegates heralded from areas of
philosophy, narratology, computer programming, virtual reality, artificial
intelligence, education, graphic design, natural sciences, psychoanalysis, social
sciences and economics. Additionally, thirteen countries and four continents were
represented, with scholars hailing from Austria, Czech Republic, Germany,
Switzerland, Malta, Poland, Wales, Scotland, England, Canada, the United States
of America, Australia, and Brazil. Of the twenty-two presenters, a full third of the
group were females. After the notoriety of the Gamergate scandal the year before,
we females felt it was a big level up from the popular representations of women in
videogame studies. We were changing the room with more estrogen. Knowing that
estrogen comes from the greek oistros, literally meaning “verve or inspiration,”
maybe our very attendance contributed to that sense of encouragement and
creativity?
viii Introduction
__________________________________________________________________
An important element to note, also, was that no less than half of the delegates
had never presented publicly before, choosing the intimate structure of an Inter-
disciplinary conference to be their debut. This combination of experienced and
inexperienced academics provided a fertile ground for innovative discussion and
perspectives. Perhaps the newbies brought with them a type of humility that
inexperienced people sometimes have. But this humility was in a specific context:
for many of them it was their first time in Oxford and the intellectual aura of this
University was also bringing a type of respect or admiration. Or maybe Impostor
Syndrome. Or all three! Regardless of the reasons, Mansfield College, with its
grand architecture and even grander academic history, invited a kindred spirit to be
more attentive and sensitive in their listening, which is why our first presenter was
that much more important in setting this open and focused atmosphere.
Opening the conference by stating explicitly how videogames fit Danto’s
definition of art2 released the rest of us from the need to justify games as a rightful
field of academic study. This was a leap into our imagination, a big “What If?”
What if we felt we could safely exchange without judgments or justifications to our
peers? What if our work could finally be taken seriously? What if we could really
change minds—for the better or worse? Accepting the multiple possibilities of
what a videogame is, as much as a definition akin to other art forms such as film or
photography or dance, triggered a welcoming fertile ground to express each of our
own unique perception of what videogames are. There are multiple: sometimes a
chef-d’oeuvres, sometimes a yukky crappy plastic flower, sometimes moving,
sometimes entertaining, sometimes life changing, sometimes violent but just as
complex as art is. And that very first presentation gave us the permission to release
our own perceptions.
The edited chapters presented in this volume represent only a snapshot of such
a ‘levelling up’ of videogame studies. The most prevalent theme revolved around
the emotional and moral impacts of contemporary videogames, with specific
reference to Bioware’s Mass Effect and Dragon Age series, in particular Dragon
Age: Inquisition as it had only been released nine months previously. Yager
Entertainment’s Spec Ops: The Line and the episodic games Dontnod’s Life is
Strange and TellTale’s Walking Dead were also featured for their use of narrative
in the creation of identity as player-character and real-life human being. Other
presentations discussed gamer identity in light of the GamerGate scandal in terms
of defining and exploring the importance and relevance of ‘fanboy’ subculture, as
well as one of its manifestations in the form of Let’s Play videos on YouTube.
This idea of videogames reaching into the world outside the game was another
common thread amongst the delegation. Many presentations discussed how new
technologies in virtual reality and social networking are opening doors for more
‘serious gaming’ in the form of educational games and citizen science.
Videogames have become such a cultural mainstay that they are and could be
further used to create changes in other fields such as social activism and natural
Brittany Kuhn and Alexia Bhéreur-Lagounaris ix
__________________________________________________________________
sciences, specifically in reference to the capabilities of crowd-sourcing and
community-building in the massive-multiplayer online games EVE Online and
World of Warcraft. In-development projects such as Massive-multiplayer Online
Science (as described in the included chapter by the same name) and Poland ADL
Partnership Lab’s CAMELOT (a military and foreign language training
programme) are expanding serious and educational gaming into a new medium.
Bethesda’s Skyrim was even given a ‘serious’ look in terms of its use for moral and
ethical dilemmas, and Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto V was analysed for its
implications on mainstream capitalist marketing practices.
Although not all presentations from the conference are included in this volume,
the fifteen that have been are carefully divided into three sections:
I. Theoretical Impact of videogames
II. Individual Impact by videogames
III. Social Impact through videogames.
These threads were not obviously present at the start of the conference but emerged
from a recognition by all in attendance that, for all the seeming disconnect between
casual mobile games like Dominaedro and first-person role-playing console games
like Mass Effect, all genres and styles of games impact our cultural and
professional understandings of how videogames, and our own culture in response,
continue to evolve.
The first section, entitled ‘Theoretical Impact of Videogames,’ includes four
papers that in some way relate to expanding a philosophical, theoretical, structural,
or practical understanding of the videogame as a cultural medium. As with any art-
or entertainment-based medium, the natural beginning is often with philosophy; to
this end, Declan Humphreys starts the volume by analysing the ‘usefulness’ of
videogames in terms of Aristotle’s philosophical theory of false pleasures and the
good life. It seems apt to begin the text with a chapter validating the study of
videogames since, as Humphreys writes, the negative criticisms laid upon
videogames by political and academic figures are as impacting on the videogame
industry as videogames are on society.
Thomas Faller continues the use of philosophy through Descartes’ cogito ergo
sum and Isaac Asimov’s ‘Three Laws of Robotics’ to discuss how Bioware’s Mass
Effect videogame series presents a more-than-likely future of artificial intelligence
in terms of their development as slaves, evolution into self-aware and independent
beings and the high possibility of their revolt into humanity’s oppressors and
antagonists. What Faller argues makes the videogame different from print or
cinematic texts, such as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein or Gene Rodenberry’s Star
Trek: The Next Generation, is the ability of the player to explore the path and
events which led to each outcome and learn what not to do when artificial
intelligence makes its inevitable appearance in our own society.
In the next chapter, Brittany Kuhn moves away from philosophy and into
videogame theory through an analysis of the notorious narratology-ludology
x Introduction
__________________________________________________________________
debate, which has all but stalemated the discipline until recent years. In discussing
more contemporary studies which have evolved from that debate, Kuhn argues that
it has become more obvious that the player should be at the core of the game
experience—both narratively and ludically—rather than the game as a stand-alone
object, an idea reflected by the rest of the chapters in this volume.
This focus on the ‘ludo-narrative’ is further explored by Kieran Wilson, who
discusses the multiple strata on which story is created in modern videogames and
how those different strata are expressed ludically and narratively. What’s dually
important about this chapter is that Wilson does not just analyse videogames but
presents a research methodology which melds the two opposing sides of
videogames studies without supplanting one as less important than the other and
can be of equal use when analysing all types of games, from casual mobile games
to intense first-person role playing console games, as long as they include a story
of some kind.
Shifting perspectives slightly, the final chapter of this section explores the
impact of the player on the videogame in terms of design. Vicente Martin
Mastrocola, a designer on the independent Brazilian casual mobile game
Dominaedro, provides in-depth analysis for why and how the iterative design
process is so important to developing a successful mobile game. As with the other
chapters in this volume, Mastrocola comes to the conclusion that understanding
and learning from the player experience seems to be what determines whether a
game becomes widely successful; a concept more fully explored in the next
section.
“Individual Impact by Videogames” discusses how contemporary videogames
have begun to include more emotionally or morally ambiguous themes, prompting
the player to consider their previously held concepts of identity and decision-
making. Felix Schniz begins this section by analysing how Spec Ops: The Line
confronts the player with the cognitive dissonance between the unethical
behaviours required of players in first-person war-themed games and the pleasure
derived from completing a game, regardless of what the player is asked to do.
The three chapters following discuss how Dragon Age: Inquisition (DA:I)
represents, reflects or corrupts decision-making and identity-formation through its
narrative and non-playable characters. Like Schniz’ chapter, Shauna Ashley Bennis
continues a discussion of cognitive dissonance by describing how DA: I helped her
recognise how her own identity guided her gameplay and face some serious
questions of deciding whether finishing a game should mean compromising one’s
principles.
René Schallegger uses texts from Canadian studies and postmodernism to
explain how DA:I represents the quintessential Canadian identity through the
game’s approaches to inclusivity on both a national and a cultural level, while Veit
Frick criticises the game’s lack of realistic romantic encounters. Although DA:I is
much more inclusive and respectful of the spectrum of gender-identification and
Brittany Kuhn and Alexia Bhéreur-Lagounaris xi
__________________________________________________________________
sexual preferences, Frick argues that the gameplay itself still lacks a sense of risk
in the form of rejection or consequences when approaching a romantic relationship
with certain non-playable characters, and such lack of risk may create an
unrealistic representation of real-life romance in its more impressionable players.
Moving away from DA:I but still within the realm of Bioware, Vanessa Erat
gives a post-colonialist reading of the Mass Effect series. She argues that while
being inclusive and sensitive to human minorities in terms of race, religion, sex or
gender, humanity, as represented in Mass Effect, still subjugates a minority in the
form of nonhuman races, stealing their colonies and, in one particularly grim case,
committing genocide in the name of the human race. Erat goes on to argue that the
lack of player agency in the cases she presents force the player to consider the
crimes and consequences of such actions and how contemporary instances of neo-
colonialism could be avoided.
The volume comes to a close with a discussion of serious gaming in the section
“Social Impact through Videogames.” These chapters focus on how videogames go
beyond the individual in creating a widespread cultural impact, whether it be
helpful or hindering. In the first chapter of the section, Attila Szantner presents a
developing project which combines the methodology of crowd-sourcing citizen
science and the audience of the massive-multiplayer online game EVE Online to
become what his group is calling ‘Massive Multiplayer Online Science.’ Alexia
Bhéreur-Lagounaris furthers Szantner’s argument in her chapter following,
proposing that the future of both citizen science and videogames lies in the
development of multiple forms of citizen science gaming, Szantner’s project being
only one of many possibilities. As both Szantner and Bhéreur-Lagounaris describe,
gaming culture is already rife with player-developed practices in the form of
modding (or modifying a computer game’s programming) and fan-created wiki-
pages, and by introducing citizen science methodologies, such practices could be
utilised to provide the framework for use in social impact projects.
Thomas Hale further explores these fan-made practices with particular attention
on the Let’s Play phenomenon and its relevance to the archiving of the videogame
experience and development of a ‘gamer’ identity. Bradley James and B.D.
Fletcher expand on this idea of fan-created society in defining the ‘Fanboy’ sub-
culture, in both its positive and negative lights. James and Fletcher argue that
fanboys, and the misconceptions given about them, are in large part responsible for
the marketing boom of the gaming industry.
Simon Murphy wraps up this section, and the volume, by bringing the papers
full circle in using the philosophical arguments of Baudrillard’s theory of
‘hyperreality’ to discuss the impact and emergent practices of the blatantly satirical
capitalist messages of Grand Theft Auto V. However, Murphy goes on to argue that
it is the very fan culture, in the forms of modding and hacking, which has further
complicated this hyperreality through extortion of the virtual marketplace, forcing
developers to create fixes or even entire games which hinder such player creativity.
xii Introduction
__________________________________________________________________
We only hope that you too, in reading the chapters included in this volume,
‘level up’ your understanding of the cultural impact of videogames, by them, and
through them, as we did. We also hope you will ponder and maybe answer the
question we all began to ask ourselves as the conference came to an end: with the
advent of virtual reality and more advanced social networking technologies, where
will videogames, and subsequently our society, ‘level up’ to next?
Notes
1
Anita Williams Woolley, et al. “Evidence for a Collective Intelligence Factor in
the Performance of Human Groups,” Science 330:6004 (Oct 2010): 686-688,
accessed 1 May 2016, DOI: 10.1126/science.1193147, PDF.
2
Not included in this collection: David Mizzi, “What Video Games Are: An
Application of Danto’s Theory of Art,” paper presented at the 7th Global
Conference on Videogame Cultures and the Future of Interactive Entertainment,
accessed 9 September 2015, http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/critical-issues/wp-
content/uploads/2015/07/Mizzi_VG7draftpaper.pdf, PDF.
Bibliography not added by the editors.

Part I
Theoretical Impact of Videogames

Aristotle Goes to the Arcade: The Ethics of Videogames,
False Pleasure and the Good Life
Declan J. Humphreys
Abstract
This chapter aims to discuss the ethical underpinnings of videogames and what role
they have to play when we conceive of ‘the good life’ or of a life well lived.
Drawing on the works of Plato and Aristotle this chapter will introduce the notion
of ‘false pleasure’ as a philosophical subject and will then apply this concept to the
culture of videogames. Aristotle holds that pleasure is a central part of the good
life, however it is possible to be mistaken about what pleasures make up this life;
this is the notion of ‘false’ pleasure. One charge laid against videogames is that
their pursuit is a waste of one’s time or faculties, and that the pleasure gleaned
from playing should be considered a form of false pleasure. Although there is some
merit to this criticism, this chapter will defend the claim that some videogames
should be considered as having a role to play in the pursuit of the good life. This
issue is important to the ethics of videogames; before we make ethical judgements
about the content of some of these games, we must examine the ethics surrounding
their culture. Key to our enquiry are the choices we make in spending our time and
faculties on certain activities, with this in mind this chapter explores whether some
videogames should be considered pleasures worth pursuing.
Key Words: Aristotle, ethics, Eudaimonia, false pleasure, good life, pleasure,
videogames.
*****
1. Introduction
Should videogames be considered a form of false pleasure? To answer this
question I will begin by drawing on definitions of false pleasure from Plato and
Aristotle, and taking up and examining the criticism that all videogames should be
considered in some way a ‘waste of time’, or a form of false pleasure. My aim is to
give the criticism of something being a ‘waste of time’ some philosophical
grounding or content. This will be done by exploring the notion of false pleasure,
which implies that we can be mistaken in the forms of pleasure we pursue or that
we can think something is pleasurable when, for some reason, it is not. In my
research I have developed a taxonomy of the forms false pleasure may take:
• Those based on erroneous belief;

• Those that are experientially false;
• Those that have harmful consequences; and
• Those that are in some way malicious.
4 Aristotle Goes to the Arcade
__________________________________________________________________
In my taxonomy there are two categories of most relevance to video games,
false belief and the experientially false. I will use examples from Plato to explore
the notion of false pleasure in belief, and the works of Aristotle to explore false
experiential pleasure. By using these categories of false pleasure as parameters I
will argue that it is not true that videogames in all cases should be considered false
pleasures; moreover some videogames, if viewed as ends in themselves, have a
role to play in what Aristotle calls eudaimonia or the good life.
2. Examples of Videogame Criticisms

Videogames, along with other forms of mass popular culture, have been
subjected to criticisms in many moral and political forms. Many of these criticisms,
and debates regarding this medium, focus on the content of videogames; namely
the violence, sexism and crime portrayed in some videogames and the undue
influence this may or may not have on the player. While these debates continue,
this chapter intends to consider a different aspect of the ethics surrounding
videogames. Before we look at the content of videogames, and their ethical
implications, I feel it important to look at whether it is right to play videogames in
general. We cannot deny that videogames offer a type of pleasure, but the
argument against them takes the line that this pleasure is being created to the
overall detriment of the individual; in this way what is being created is a kind of
false pleasure. There are many examples of the argument that videogames are in
some way a false pleasure; it is important to consider the merits of these criticisms.
The first argument comes from John Condry of Cornell University and his advice
to parents on videogames:
take a conservative stance, until proven otherwise. Assume that

playing video games is generally a waste of time, but it’s ok for
children to waste an hour on them here and there.1
The second argument comes from Member George Foulkes; in the UK in 1981, he
put forward a Private Member’s Bill which put restrictions on arcade games
because, as the motion stated, children ‘become crazed, with eyes glazed, oblivious
to everything around them as they play the machines’.2 These are just a couple of
the examples of arguments and often-fanciful claims made against videogames,
which will be explored in further detail later.
In terms of ethical issues and videogames it is useful to ask, as Miguel Sicart
does in his book The Ethics of Computer Games, whether we should ‘consider
[these] issues as new or as old ethical dilemmas? Is there a radical novelty in the
ethical questions posed by computer games?’3 In exploring the arguments of false
pleasure from Plato and Aristotle it may start to show that some of the objections
to videogames, and the criticism that they are wastes of time, are not in fact new
ethical objections at all.
Declan J. Humphreys 5
__________________________________________________________________
3. False Pleasure of Belief in Plato’s Philebus
In order to examine the notion of false pleasure we should first look at Plato’s
argument that we can have false belief about something and that this can lead us to
think something is pleasurable when it is not. There have been identified in Plato’s
work the Philebus four types of false pleasure4; I will discuss two of these as they
make an interesting distinction between falsity of one experiencing pleasure and
falsity in the object of pleasure. The first kind of false pleasure, as identified by
philosopher David Wolfsdorf,5 is the pleasure that accompanies a false or
erroneous belief in which our belief or opinion about something makes the pleasure
taken in that thing true or false. Plato states that our ‘opinions being true or false,
imbue the pains and pleasures with their own condition of falsehood (42a)’.6 If I
take pleasure in a belief, a belief that I think is true; but it turns out that this belief
was false, then it follows that the pleasure taken in this belief should also be
considered false. Consider that I have a belief that I will win the lottery next
Monday, and I take great pleasure in this belief, if it turns out that on Monday I do
not win the lottery, then the pleasure I had taken was in a false belief; the pleasure
therefore should also be considered false, as it did not correlate with something that
actually occurred.7
The second of Plato’s false pleasures of belief, and in contrast to the first, is
when a quality of an object itself leads us to believe it is pleasurable when it is not.
The object itself distorts our belief into thinking it is pleasurable, Plato states that
in this case the false pleasure can fill our beliefs with its falsity. A false imagined
pleasure gives rise to a correspondingly false belief.8 This can happen when we
think of the pleasure that we expect from an object, thinking to ourselves ‘pursuing
this will bring me x pleasure’ or ‘I will be happy when I have x’. The problem here
is that it is difficult to know how much this future pleasure will bring us.
It can be argued that some videogames offer this second false form of expectant
pleasure, in that we imagine the future pleasure to be more pleasant than it actually
will be. Players can think that when they achieve the next level, obtain the next
item or upgrade then they will be brought a certain amount of pleasure, but
sometimes this is not the case. In some games we expect a certain amount of
pleasure from accomplishing certain things; however, once these tasks have been
achieved the actual pleasure may be diminished from what we expected. The game
itself causes us to have false beliefs about the level of pleasure we will experience.
This is one way in which false pleasure could manifest itself in some videogames.
4. False Experiential Pleasure in Aristotle’s Ethics

I have identified in Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics five forms of experiential
pleasure that we could consider to be false:
• Excess;
• Artificial (harmful);
__________________________________________________________________
• In themselves (ethical);
• From their source (motive); and
• Alien pleasures (distractions).
I will explore two examples, those of excess and of alien pleasure or

distractions. The first, the false pleasure of excess, corresponds in part with Plato’s
first kind of false pleasure, in this case it is the subject or the self’s interaction with
an object that make it false, not necessarily the object itself. Each person has states
or activities that bring them pleasure; we shouldn’t necessarily decry a person for
taking pleasure in fine food, wine or sex. According to Aristotle, though, these are
states and activities in which it is possible to exceed their good and as such, so too
is the pleasure corresponding to these activities. This pleasure may fade if the
person continues to eat and drink so much so they make themselves sick, or when
considering videogames specifically, literally playing to death.9 In this case,
Aristotle notes, it is not the pleasures themselves that are false, but rather the
excess of pursuit that is considered to be false. Judging the line between what is
pleasurable and what is excessive is a more difficult task.
The second type of false pleasure we should consider are those that Aristotle
terms 'alien pleasures’10 or distractions; these are similar in part to Plato’s second
kind of false pleasure as it is an element of the object itself that fills our belief with
falsity. In this case a pleasure can be considered false because it takes away from
something of more worth. In this case we have competing pleasures, as Aristotle
writes ‘the pleasanter activity drives out the other, the more so if it is much more
pleasant, until the other activity ceases altogether’11 Pleasures that infringe on the
progress of other activities are those Aristotle terms ‘alien pleasures’; these alien
pleasures are false because they are preventing us from achieving something else.
This I suggest is the kind of false pleasure that is referred to when the argument is
made that something is a ‘waste of time’. In this case it is argued that if the playing
videogames were to impact one’s life in such a way that their pursuit infringed on
other areas then, in this case, they should be considered false pleasures.
5. A Eudaimonic Defense of Videogames

When we think of something as a false pleasure, particularly an object such as
videogames, we should be able to identify where the falsity lies. We can say that
either our belief or level of interaction with the object of pleasure causes that
pleasure to be false, or that there is an aspect or element inherent to the object itself
that causes us to experience a false pleasure. With this in mind and with the forms
of false pleasure we can revisit the objections to videogames previously raised.
Condry states that ‘playing video games is generally a waste of time, but it’s ok
for children to waste an hour on them here and there’.12 We can examine this
argument in two ways: that the falsity lies in the subject’s interaction with the
videogame; or that the videogame as an object itself contains an element of falsity.
__________________________________________________________________
If we take this argument as to do with the subject then we can say that
excessive use of videogames is a false pleasure using Aristotle’s notion of false
pleasure of excess, but as we have seen it is possible to exceed the good of many
objects of pleasure. We can also consider the argument as being concerned that
videogames take away from other things of more worth, that they may be false on
Aristotle’s notion of false alien pleasures or distraction. In this case we should
examine the object itself. Considering Member George Foulkes’ argument that
children playing arcade games ‘become crazed, with eyes glazed, oblivious to
everything around them as they play the machines’13, then the falsity of the
pleasure alleged is also in the object itself; the responsibility is taken from the
subject and put on the object, as Plato’s second kind of false pleasures states the
object fills our beliefs with falsity.
How can we defend videogames against these arguments? There are many
ways that videogames as objects have been defended and it may be useful to see
what role they may play in Aristotle’s eudaimonia or the good life. One way is to
consider someone who spends a lot of time playing an online game, and his family
is worried that he spends too much time on this game.14 But the reason he could be
playing is that in real life, he is bullied and does not have many friends to socialise
with while in this online world, he has many other players he considers friends and
they interact and play together. This game provides what he cannot find in the
outside world, namely social interaction and friendship, which are essential parts of
what Aristotle considers to be the good life.
But there are defences of videogames that do not just see them as a retreat from
the outside world, but also in terms of the benefits they provide. Froding and
Peterson15 mention three ways videogames can be used to good ends that involve
both cognitive and physical skills: as facilitators of a healthy lifestyle, noting apps
that turn working out into a type of game, giving feedback and achievements to
users; as a method of improving professional skills, they give the example of
surgeons using games to practice new methods; and as a space for improving moral
decision-making and cognitive capacities, mentioning both memory games and
physical (Wii-type) games as a way to improve cognition and decision making.
These are undoubtedly benefits of some videogames and they promote the use of
videogames by viewing some of them as a means to a further end, for health or
education purposes. On Aristotle’s view of eudemonia the argument certainly
holds that if some videogames have social or developmental benefits, they are
good. But there may be another way to defend some videogames as part of the
good life: by seeing them as ends in themselves, rather than as means to further
ends.
Aristotle states that cultivating the contemplative or intellectual life is a way in
which happiness manifests itself at its highest, that:
__________________________________________________________________
… contemplation is at once the highest form of activity (since the
intellect is the highest thing in us, and the objects with which the
intellect deals are the highest things that can be known) …16
Our use of our intellect is then one of the highest goods, and videogames, although
they differ to other media such as TV or the novel in that they require input from
the user, often requires various uses of intellect and problem solving in order to
achieve something. It could be argued, then, that videogames are pleasurable for
the same reasons winning a game of chess is: through an exceptional use of
intellect, one is able to ‘outthink’ an opponent.
When people say that something is a ‘waste of time,’ what they seem to be
saying is that it does not lead to a further end, that the time we spend should be
used to further other areas of our life. It may be useful though to view some
videogames as exercises of the intellect and so, as ends in themselves, rather than
as means to other ends. Aristotle states that:
Political and military activities … are not chosen for their own
sake but with a view to a remoter end, whereas the activity of the
intellect is felt to excel in the serious use of leisure, taking as it
does the form of contemplation, and not to aim at anything
beyond itself, and to own a pleasure peculiar to itself, thereby
enhancing the activity.17
From this view, we do not pursue activities of the intellect for a further end; rather,
the use of the intellect is an end in itself.
If we view some videogames in a similar fashion to games such as chess, then
the argument makes itself. Chess does not necessarily hold any further purpose
beyond the human interaction and application of intellect within it. But it would be
hard to argue that chess should be seen as a ‘waste of time’ because it may not lead
to anything beyond itself. If we view the use of our intellect as an end in itself then
we can perhaps say that the playing of those videogames that test and make use of
our intellect are valuable, for the pleasure that comes from the exercise of our
intellect, according to Aristotle, is one of the highest goods of man. In this way we
can view some videogames as being worthwhile on Aristotle’s notion of
eudaimonia and rather than being false pleasures, the engagement of the intellect
make them genuinely pleasurable.
6. Conclusion
I have shown there are different forms of false pleasure and in exploring the
arguments of false pleasure from Plato and Aristotle shown that some of the
objections to videogames, and the criticism that they are wastes of time, are not in
fact new ethical objections. I have talked to only a few examples of arguments
__________________________________________________________________
against videogames and shown that they do not demonstrate that all videogames
are false pleasures, moreover there are some videogames that have the ethical
quality of being worthy of pursuit. In the defence against being called ‘wastes of
time’ we can see that if some videogames are seen as uses of our intellect, then we
can value them as worthwhile pursuits in themselves and as valid part of
Aristotle’s notion of the good life.
Notes
1
John Condry, ‘Video Games Can Waste Children’s Time’, Cornell Cooperative
Extension, 2015, viewed on 15 June 2015,
http://washington.cce.cornell.edu/home-family/parent-pages/leisure-time/video-
games-can-waste-childrens-time
2
‘Control of Space Invaders and Other Electronic Games’, Parliamentary Debates,
House of Commons, United Kingdom, May 20, 1981, Col.288.
3
Miguel Sicart, The Ethics of Computer Games (Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2009),
16.
4
David Wolfsdorf, Pleasure in Ancient Greek Philosophy (New York: Cambridge
University Press, 2013), 80-97.
5
Ibid., 80.
6
Plato, Philebus, trans. Harold Fowler (Massachusetts: Harvard University Press,
1925).
7
An example similar to this is given in Wolfsdorf, Pleasure in Ancient Greek
Philosophy, 80.
8
Ibid., 87.
9
See Simon Parkin, Death by Videogame: Tales of Obsession from the Virtual
Frontline (London: Serpent’s Tail, 2015).
10
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, trans. Horace Rackham (Massachusetts: Harvard
University Press, 1934), 1175b16.
11
Ibid., 1175b8-10.
12
Condry, ‘Video Games Can Waste Children’s Time’.
13
‘Control of Space Invaders and Other Electronic Games’, May 20, 1981,
Col.288.
14
This example is taken from Richard Wood, ‘Problems with the Concept of Video
Game “Addiction”: Some Case Study Examples’, International Journal of Mental
Health Addiction 6 (2008): 169-178.
15
Barbro Fröding and Martin Peterson, ‘Why Computer Games Can Be Essential
for Human Flourishing’, Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in
Society, 11.2 (2013): 84-87.
16
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, 1177a22-25.
__________________________________________________________________
17
I here use a preferred translation of this passage from J. A. K. Thompson trans.,
The Ethics of Aristotle (London, England: Penguin Books, 1953), 297. This
corresponds with (Bekker’s numbering) 1177b17-22.
Bibliography
Condry, John. ‘Video Games Can Waste Children’s Time’ Cornell Cooperative
Extension, 2015. Viewed on 15 June 2015.
http://washington.cce.cornell.edu/home-family/parent-pages/leisure-time/video-
games-can-waste-childrens-time.
‘Control of Space Invaders and Other Electronic Games’. Parliamentary Debates,

House of Commons. United Kingdom, May 20, 1981. Col.288.
Fröding, Barbro and Martin Peterson. ‘Why Computer Games Can Be Essential for
Human Flourishing’. Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society
11.2 (2013): 81-91.
Parkin, Simon. Death by Videogame: Tales of Obsession from the Virtual

Frontline. London: Serpent’s Tail, 2015.
Sicart, Miguel. The Ethics of Computer Games. Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2009.
Thompson, J. A. K., trans. The Ethics of Aristotle. London: Penguin Books, 1953.
Wolfsdorf, David. Pleasure in Ancient Greek Philosophy. New York: Cambridge

University Press, 2013.
Wood, Richard T. A. ‘Problems with the Concept of Video Game “Addiction”:

Some Case Study Examples’. International Journal of Mental Health Addiction 6
(2008): 169-178.
Declan J. Humphreys is a PhD student at the University of New England,

Australia, focusing on the intersection between philosophy and modern culture,
with an interest in the ethical considerations surrounding videogames.
We Are Legion: Artificial Intelligence in BioWare´s Mass Effect
Thomas Faller
Abstract
In Mass Effect (ME) players are surrounded by artificial intelligence (AI) and its
various ethical and cultural peculiarities and features. Intentionally created as
workers for the quarians, the geth, a race of networked AI, became conscious about
their situation and started to ask questions. This act of becoming conscious can be
trailed back to the Descartes cogito ergo sum and the right to be accepted as
individual. Besides clear references to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein from 1818,
with the creation overcoming its master, the geth narrative also has parallels to Star
Trek: The Next Generation and the episode ’Elementary, Dear Data’, where an AI
gains consciousness about its situation and wants to be a master itself. Due to the
technical developments of this generation, AI becomes more and more of an
important issue to consider. The ME universe does not only provide us with
classical themes such as a distinct breach of Asimov’s ‘Three Laws of Robotics,’
but also gives us the opportunity to experience those issues in a more immersive
way. Although those themes do occur regularly when talking about AI in science
fiction, embedding them into a highly immersive video game takes interaction with
AI to a new level. Due to the interactive nature of the medium, the narrative and
other encounters regarding the various forms of AI in ME have a strong potential
for reflecting those issues and can provide possibilities for future encounters in our
real world. By sensitizing future generations in terms of moral and ethical
approaches towards AI via video games and reflecting upon the problems which
accompany them, games like ME could prevent the mistakes science fiction
authors constantly warn us about.
Key Words: BioWare, Mass Effect, artificial intelligence, geth, self-awareness,

Descartes, Frankenstein, Asimov, culture, ethics.
*****
1. The Hostile, the Outlawed and the Supportive - An Introduction

The genre science fiction has warned us for decades about the consequences
and problems which accompany the topic of artificial intelligence. John McCarthy
defines the field as ‘the science and engineering of making intelligent machines’,1
but this field offers an even broader variety in topics. One is the use of AI in
science fiction artefacts and the recurring themes and motifs. Though we tend to
forget about mechanical consciousness, the field gains more and more awareness
due to ongoing advancements of computer programs, applications, and the human
urge to create more intelligent and more convenient assistants for the daily routine.
The recurring idea of creating artificial life is now more relevant than ever, not
12 We Are Legion
__________________________________________________________________
only due to technological leaps in this field in the real world, but especially due to
mainstream entertainment artefacts that underline humanity´s incapability of
foreseeing and handling the side effects resulting from the creation of artificial life.
Science fiction movies, series and especially video games emphasize this inability
of adapting to intelligent computer programs. In the Mass Effect (ME) series, a
science fiction video game by the Canadian company BioWare, players are
confronted with ethical and cultural issues pertaining to artificial intelligence.
Furthermore, players actively have to make decisions concerning the interaction
with those conscious individuals.2 Moreover, ME also provides various forms of
artificial intelligence influencing and sometimes manipulating the perception of
those artificial beings.
In this chapter, the multifaceted ME universe and its various representations of
artificial intelligence is used to provide an overview of the issues from a cultural
perspective. Although AI has accompanied science fiction for decades, the
multitudes of AI representation cannot be more different. Therefore it is no
surprise that there is a variety in forms of conscious machines within the ME
universe, highlighting the diverse and complicated relationships between organic
species and artificial intelligence. During the game, players encounter three main
forms of artificial intelligence and their different characteristics and motivations,
all being rooted within the classical science fiction canon: the hostile reapers, the
outlawed geth, and the supportive EDI. The functions of those artificial creations
do not only highlight their positions and functions within the game, they also
represent classical problems and questions concerning artificial intelligence.
2. ‘The Created Will Always Rebel Against Their Creators.’ – Overcoming

the Masters and Becoming Self-aware
The most dominant issue regarding AI is the creation overcoming its creator, or
the so-called ‘AI takeover’.3 This does not necessarily mean the destruction or
extinction of the creator, but rather the act of gaining self-awareness and breaking
the limitations of a pre-programmed purpose. However, it mostly culminates in the
death or expulsion of the creator to extrapolate the consequences. This can be
traced back to 1818 in Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, where the
flaws and merits of humanity as creators of life are displayed, and where the
creation decides on taking revenge after being exiled by Frankenstein.4 This act of
overcoming is also dominant in the ME series and reappears during major
narratives within the series and is predominant in the origin of the series’ main
antagonists, the reapers. Whilst in Frankenstein the creation overcomes the master
by gaining intelligence and taking revenge for their unjust treatment, the artificial
intelligence created in ME decides, after collecting information that it is of greatest
aid for the galaxy if their masters die. Further, in the ME canon the creation was
made to aid the master. Aeons ago a highly advanced ancient race called leviathans
had to face the problem that their thralls were exterminated by their own creations.
Thomas Faller 13
__________________________________________________________________
As a consequence the leviathans ‘created intelligence with the mandate to preserve
life at any cost’.5 Despite the given circumstances, the leviathans thought that if
they created this artificial intelligence, they would not face the same fate as their
thralls due to their superiority. Unfortunately, the intention of creating a superior
artificial intelligence to protect their dominance miserably failed as the
Intelligence, also named Catalyst, decided that the most efficient way to protect the
galaxy is through the extinction of the leviathans.6 The Intelligence underwent a
process of collecting information and data to come to the conclusion that ‘the
created will always rebel against their creators’.7 Furthermore, it created the
reapers, machines based on the leviathans, to vanquish them and to regulate the
chaos brought by the conflict between synthetic and organic beings. Fascinating
enough, players only receive this information in the end of the ME series.8 During
the entire series, the origin of the reapers remains unknown, creating a feeling of
the sublime and helplessness since the reapers always appear as undefeatable or at
least a final hurdle in the galaxies’ struggle to survive. Also the players’ contact
with holographic copies and later on with real reapers adds another layer to the
interaction between those godlike machines and the rather defenceless species of
the galaxy. ME emphasises the problem that a superior species always tends to
create life, in any form, knowing of possible consequence but being too ignorant
regarding the effects. The creators struggle to remain dominant as the creations
gain consciousness and self-awareness, developing intelligence capable of
overcoming the masters as also seen in Frankenstein. As a consequence, in ME, the
Intelligence created the reapers as superior to all other beings to harvest advanced
civilizations before such conflicts can reappear. Nevertheless the plan had one
major flaw, namely that the harvest of the reapers only appears in cycles, leaving
enough time for more intelligent races in the galaxy to create synthetic life
themselves. The geth, a race of networked artificial intelligence, were initially
created by the quarians as a labour force. Even the name ‘geth’translates directly
from the quarian language to ‘Servant of the People’.9 Like the reapers, who are
based on the leviathans, the geth are modelled after the quarians, having a
humanoid shape and appearance.
In the course of the creation overcoming the master, the act of becoming self-
aware is inseparably linked to this idea. This is shown by the uprising of the geth,
which culminated in a war between them and their creators. In the process of
creation by the quarians they were built to be as intelligent as possible and to share
a network of information, and also to be non-sentient. This feature pre-
programmed by the quarians should ensure that the geth will not develop self-
awareness and stay submissive to their masters. However, the shared network
intelligence the geth also received from their creators increased exponentially as
the geth started to use the network to develop sentience. During this time span the
geth started to become aware of their being and purpose and started to ask
questions concerning their existence. The process of becoming aware was
14 We Are Legion
__________________________________________________________________
determined by the quarians as a malfunction and caused massive concern because
the geth did not accept commands concerning their deactivation anymore.
Furthermore, after losing control over the situation the quarians started to
encounter the geth with armed force. The previously harmless geth did not intend
to physically attack their creators or harm them in any way, but had no other choice
than responding with armed force as well.10 They simply copied the behaviour of
their masters. This part of the story is again only revealed to players during the
third instalment of the series. Whilst exploring the insides of a geth server, players
learn about the story from the synthetic side, which he has previously only heard
from the quarian perspective. Since the geth are capable of storing and retrieving
the collective history, players learn about the intentions of the quarians and their
fears and anxieties concerning their creations. At the same time players experience
how the geth gained their ungrateful reputation and how the conflict between the
two parties started. Since players are able to ally with companions from both sides,
this immersive and interactive experience adds to the decision-making process
where players can decide for themselves which side they support. Furthermore, the
game also allows players to cooperate or decline the help of either side during the
final conflict, by reflecting on the information provided and choosing one side or
even to mediate between the parties and mend the relationship between creator and
creation.
3. ‘There is no invidual.’ – AI and the Collective Mind

Another remarkable issue in this context is the portrayal of a collective mind,
meaning that one geth unit is not an individual, but their physical representations
share one group mind. Like the Intelligence collected and preserved knowledge of
the galaxy and stored it within a collective mind, the geth network makes it
possible to share experiences and communicate among themselves. This is further
highlighted by the reference of the geth companion Legion as the synthetic shell
hosts 1,183 geth programs and refers to itself with the quote ‘There is no
individual. We are geth’.11 Although the physical representations do not differ from
a classical robotic appearance, the collective mind adds a new dimension
concerning the encounter with those individuals. ME highlights the fact that the
unit referred to as Legion never personally met the game´s protagonist but knows
of his existence due to their collective intelligence.12 Encounters with these
synthetic individuals throughout the game were recorded and shared within the
hive mind to inform about positive or negative encounters with other species and
their reactions. Throughout the series the geth also appear in different forms
representing the free will the machines developed. Whilst during the first
instalment the geth appear as enemy and clearly are harming the species of the
galaxy, players later on learn that despite the collective mind, the geth split in
separate groups. Legion is referring to the renegades, who are loyal towards the
Old Machines the reapers, as heretics.13 Those individuals separated themselves
Thomas Faller 15
__________________________________________________________________
from the geth by accepting the reapers’ help and letting them influence their
program. The other half of the geth remained neutral, which is explained to players
by the fact that those geth did not pursue or attack the quarians further after the
war, since they only wanted to establish a peaceful society and work for their own
ideals.14 This narrative is also unique for the ME universe, as it highlights the idea
of artificial intelligence having their own will and even if they derive from the
same background, choosing what seems most logical and reasonable to them. This
idea of free will adds to the concept of gaining self-awareness and provides players
with the idea that even a creation who was intended to be submissive can gain
enough knowledge and intelligence to be equal or sometimes superior to the
creator.
This example is contrary to the Intelligence who decided to extinguish the
leviathans to ensure security amongst the universe. The geth did not intend to be
violent but rather wanted to establish culture and society on their own, based on the
principles they learned through their progression. It is often argued that the
possession of a soul is what makes us human, which is further used as a
justification of our actions. This principle is underlined by the quote that caused the
war between the quarians and the geth ‘Does this unit have a soul?’15 The self-
awareness of the creation always caused major discussion and therefore its
implementation in the ME series added another cornerstone in the representation of
artificial intelligence. The idea and question traces back to Descartes' cogito ergo
sum and the philosophical idea that as soon as an individual becomes self-aware of
itself and its environment and is able to draw connections and question its
existence, it is a sentient being and therefore should receive the same rights as
human beings. In ME 3 players finally manage to retrieve information which
enables them to destroy the bonds between the reapers and the heretic section of
the geth. Players are left with the possibility to decide on the future of the synthetic
race.16 Reflecting on the information received during the game, Shepard is able to
either eradicate the geth completely, which also includes the units who allied with
the players, or to reprogram the heretics, which would mean the loss of the quarian
alliance. Here the game ultimately puts an artificial intelligence and an organic
species on the same pedestal, acknowledging the synthetic beings as equal and
giving players the possibility to choose artificial life over organic. Furthermore, the
act of transcendence, from being a threat to humanity into an ally, shifts the
player’s perception of fear towards artificial intelligence to understanding and
sympathy.17 Moreover the game also gives players the chance to bring peace to
both races and to end the long-lasting conflict.
4. ‘To Serve and Protect’ – The Supportive Side of AI

After already briefly mentioning the efforts of the geth to cooperate with the
players and the rest of the galaxy, this also brings another aspect of artificial
intelligence to the fore, namely the supportive role of synthetic life. All of the
16 We Are Legion
__________________________________________________________________
various forms of AI mentioned above feature one similarity: a distinct breach of
Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics, as they all harm their creators. However, the
last form of AI in ME that needs to be introduced is the supportive program. After
mostly belligerent interaction during the first instalment, ME 2 introduces the
artificial intelligence EDI on the player’s space vessel. Programmed as a
supportive system, the artificial intelligence encounters problems with the ship's’
navigator because he argues that the program has too much power and influence
over the ship and its vital functions. On the contrary, EDI also provides the crew of
the vessel, and therefore the players, with significant information on situations and
helps when needed. EDI represents the actual intended use of artificial intelligence,
namely to serve and aid humanity.18 Players are confronted with artificial
intelligence being responsible for their survival on the spaceship, as EDI is capable
of shutting down all vital functions in an instance but has no intention to do so.
This presents players a development in the perception of artificial life, from solely
hostile encounters during ME 1 to being dependent on a program to survive and
learn that artificial intelligence also can be useful and caring in ME 2 and ME 3.
Moreover, the relationship between the navigator Joker and EDI also shifts during
the game. As players explore the relationship and the interplay of both sides, Joker,
who previously referred to EDI as it is now starting to acknowledge her presence
and importance on board of the ship by referring to the female-voiced program as
she.19 This provides players with the notion that the program is recognized as more
humanlike by the crew. This evolution of EDI culminates in ME 3 as the former
program on the ship is downloaded into a synthetic body. The transformation from
a program into a physical being can be seen as the ultimate achievement of
artificial intelligence. The transformation of EDI also improves the relationship of
her and Joker, as they start to establish a connection beyond work. EDI approaches
the player with a quote from Frankenstein questioning her position within the
relationship to Joker as she says ‘Shall each man […] find a wife for his bosom,
and each beast have his mate, and I be alone?’20 Further she is questioning her
position within the entire galaxy since ‘she is not human, not geth nor reaper; she is
free but alone’.21 As argued above, artificial intelligence tends to overcome their
creator, in the case of EDI, however, she is rather questioning her position within
the crew and sees herself as a servant to them but also as the one who keeps them
alive. This narrative adds to the evolution of the artificial intelligence from a
program to a synthetic being portraying their supportive nature and necessity to
humans.
5. ‘The Line Between Synthetic and Organic Disappears’ – Final Thoughts

During the chapter the multi-faceted pool of themes concerning artificial
intelligence in the ME series was brought to the fore to underline their importance
and variety in the video game. What makes this game unique is that the interactive
nature and the immersive gameplay enable the possibility to explore the issues
Thomas Faller 17
__________________________________________________________________
concerning artificial beings from an exceptional perspective. Players receive
information throughout the series that allows them to evolve with the history of the
creation of the different forms of artificial life and to shift his perception. However,
to experience the whole process and to receive full background information,
players have to actively search for the narratives during conversations and also has
to actively enable those conversations and dialogues. The very possibility of
interacting with the forms of artificial life allows players to test experiences within
the safe environment of the video game which also allows making wrong decisions
without negative consequences in real life. This use of the video game as a testing
environment and the several recurring themes revolving around AI are not only
capable of providing a deeper understanding of the subject but can also be used to
sensitize humanity for encounters with real virtual intelligence in the future.
Notes
1
John McCarthy, ‘What Is Artificial Intelligence?’ Stanford.edu, November 12,
2007, viewed on 15 June 2015,
http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/whatisai/node1.html.
2
Mass Effect series, Canada, BioWare/Microsoft Game Studios: 2007-2012. PC
version, DVD.
3
‘AI Takeover’, Wikipedia, 15 October 2015, viewed on 15 October 2015,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_takeover.
4
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Frankenstein, or, the Modern Prometheus
(London, 1818), Project Gutenberg online version, viewed on 15 June 2015,
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/84/84-h/84-h.htm.
5
‘animalruless’, ‘Mass Effect 3: Meeting and Talking with Leviathan’, YouTube,
11:46 min, 16 March 2013, viewed on 15 June 2015,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEqlG6bhZ80.
6
‘Generic Gaming’, ‘Mass Effect Extended Cut – New Catalyst Dialogue’,
YouTube, 12:09 min., 26 June 2012, viewed on 15 June 2015,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yx_smmq_3AE.
7
Ibid.
8
Ibid.
9
‘Geth’, Mass Effect Wikia, viewed on 16 June 2015,
http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Geth.
10
‘cTrix’, ‘Mass Effect 3 – History of The Geth’, YouTube, 22:40 min., 10 October
2013, viewed on 15 June 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvQsgk9sego.
11
‘Hekil Yang’, ‘Mass Effect 2 – Reactivating Legion’, YouTube, 3:53min., 26
March 2012, viewed on 15 June 2015,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9rYGqUudO0.
12
Ibid.
18 We Are Legion
__________________________________________________________________
13
Ibid.
14
Ibid.
15
‘the crown calls’, ‘Mass Effect 3 – Quarian and Geth Peace’, YouTube, 5:51
min., 9 March 2012, viewed on 15 June 2015,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oES7oUpoNhc.
16
‘Mass Effect 3 – Quarian and Geth Peace’, YouTube.
17
Ema Hunt, ‘Control Over Artificial Intelligence in Mass Effect’, Glitch (blog),
viewed on 15 June 2015,
http://glitch.mn/control-over-artificial-intelligence-in-mass-effect-2/.
18
‘EDI’, Mass Effect Wikia, viewed on 16 June 2015,
http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/EDI.
19
Ibid.
20
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Frankenstein, Chapter 20.
21
‘EDI’, Mass Effect Wikia.
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20 We Are Legion
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‘Reaper’. Mass Effect Wikia. Viewed on 16 June 2015.

http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Reaper.
‘the crown calls’. ‘Mass Effect 3 – Quarian and Geth Peace’. YouTube, 5:51 min.,
9 March 2012. Viewed on 15 June 2015.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oES7oUpoNhc.
‘Three Laws of Robotics’. Wikipedia, 5 October 2015. Viewed on 19 June 2015.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Laws_of_Robotics.
Wollstonecraft Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein, or, the Modern Prometheus. London:

1818. Viewed on 15 June 2015. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/84/84-h/84-h.htm.
Thomas Faller is an undergraduate student and in teachers training program for

English and American Studies and History at the Alpen-Adria-Universität
Klagenfurt, Austria. His personal interests and academic research encompass
science fiction, fantasy and interactive media.
Theories of Gaming: Are Video Games Text, Game, or
Somewhere in Between?
Brittany Kuhn
Abstract
In an effort to determine exactly where video games lie on the text-to-game
spectrum, a survey of the two-decade long debate between narratologists and
ludologists is undertaken with respect to the overlaps and gaps of both sides. What
becomes glaringly obvious is that neither side seems to consider the player herself
as the core of what defines a video game. Research has shown that video games in
fact lie outside the spectrum, as something more of an experience on the part of the
player rather than an object to be played. When studying video games from this
perspective, the breadth and academic importance of their impact on the player
becomes more obvious. Using Ermi’s and Mäyrä’s 2005 SCI (sensory-challenge-
imaginative) model, video games are defined more specifically by their immersive
qualities. Since the increased popularity of social networking, another layer has
been added to the model: shared immersion. Understanding how video games are
different from other media as embodiments of these four levels of immersion may
hopefully help to provide proof of video games as reputable sources of academic
study.
Key Words: Narratology, ludology, video games, immersion, imaginative,

sensory, challenge-based, social.
*****
1. The Narratology - Ludology Debate

What are video games—academically speaking? Even now, after nearly three
decades of research, scholars disagree on which discipline can lay the most claim
to games studies—narratology or ludology? Both seek to prove superiority over the
other: narratologists argue that digital games and media are just a new medium to
express the older media of storytelling,1 while ludologists argue against defining all
video games as remediated narratives because doing so places them in a culturally
supplementary position and ignores the fact that video games can also be viewed as
remediated games, which are at least as old and important as storytelling.2
However, both seem to miss the most important element in discussing video
games: the player herself.
The basic argument of narratologists is that video games are new types of
narratives because they contain characters and stories. Like books and cinema,
video games have participants embody a character within a fictional world with
fictional conflicts which must be resolved in order to be considered complete.3
Some narratologists even claim that video games are the embodiment of
22 Theories of Gaming
__________________________________________________________________
postmodern fiction in that they value play over purpose, chance over design,
intertextual references over genre and boundaries, difference over origin, and
dynamic over static interpretations. The act of reading a video game is similar to
the act of reading a book or film; the pulp-inspired genres of popular video games
utilise similar cues and expectations that readers call upon when exposed to a
traditional text of the same genre.4 The only difference is that video games provide
players a sense of agency and interactivity that traditional print and cinematic
media do not.5 To narratologists, video games are not a unique form of storytelling,
just a digital one.
Ludology is the term coined in 1999 by Gonzalo Frasca as being ‘the study of
games’,6 taking the term ‘ludo’ from Roger Callois’ 1958 Man, Play, and Games.
Frasca, along with Jesper Juul, Espen Aarseth, and Marku Eskelinen, argue that
video games cannot just be bulked in with other narratives because they are, first
and foremost, games. Where interactive fictions and dramas are scripted and
provide little in the way of agency on the part of the participant, video games
provide players with a whole host of options and without a player enacting those
options, a video game is useless. A book or film, be they analogue or digital,
technically can continue without any outside influence; go to the end of either and
the result will always be the same because it’s been printed. A video game cannot
even be considered begun until a player takes control, and video games, as games,
can end in any number of ways depending on the choices and agency of the
players.7 To ludologists, the narrative is always secondary to the rules and
mechanics of the game.
This stories-versus-games duality, however, is flawed from the start. Although
video games are different than print or visual media, stories are essential to modern
video games in creating an environment interesting enough to continue playing.
Bethesda’s two major role-playing action-adventure games, the Fallout and Elder
Scrolls series, are highly popular because of the narrative elements provided within
the game experience, not in spite of them. Players are willing to negotiate the same
rules and restrictions over different games because the story is different in each
instalment. The increased popularity of downloadable content which continues the
game narrative also testifies to the importance of narrative to virtual games; players
are choosing to continue playing a game even after an ending has been reached
simply because they are able to continue inhabiting the game world.
Narratives, then, do not supersede the play aspect of a video game, but they do
foster an interesting format for it. Yet, to attempt to classify a video game as just a
new form of interactive narrative ignores part of what constitutes a game: a sense
of agency and interactivity on the part of the player.8 This overarching importance
of the player has led many games studies researchers to begin classifying the game
not as an object to be studied but as an experience.
Brittany Kuhn 23
__________________________________________________________________
2. Video Games as Immersive Experiences
Although the narratology-ludology debate seems to have dissolved without any
real resolution, what ‘the debate that never happened’ has provided game studies is
the realisation that the game as an experience seems more important than studying
the game as an object.9 Abstract games like Tetris are just as appreciated by
players as first person shooter games like Call of Duty, even though the methods of
gameplay and graphics of the two genres are completely different. In order to
understand this, researchers have begun delving into what creates this player
experience, or in more layman terms, what makes these games ‘fun’.
If video games cannot be studied without referencing the player’s experience,
then a new method of analysing them must be adopted. As far back as 2000,
various games studies scholars have been attempting to define this experience.
Interactive was found to be too broad a term; anything and everything could be
considered interactive.10 With video games on the rise as a cultural phenomenon,
both financially and socially, a new term needed to be found. That term seems to
be immersion.
Immersion, too, is a slippery term because, again, it is often used to define the
level of depth a person submits to almost any task, like reading, playing, or even
everyday tasks such as cleaning or exercising. In an attempt to define what makes
immersion in video games different, researchers Laura Ermi and Franz Mäyrä have
found that immersion can take place on three different levels—imaginative,
sensory, and kinaesthetic—and that video games seem to be the only medium
which utilises all three levels effectively.11
3. Imaginative Immersion
Imaginative immersion is considered the feeling of transportation into another,
fictional space of events which often happens in narrative media. Originally
focused on how real the narrative world and events are portrayed, the definition has
expanded to include within an established world to account for different genres
which may present unnatural or realistic events (science-fiction, fantasy, etc) but
can be equally as immersive.12
For video games in particular, imaginative immersion revolves around how the
narrative ‘evokes pre-existing narrative associations’, ‘provides a staging ground
on which narrative events [take place]’ ‘imbed narrative information within mise-
en-scene’ and ‘provide resources to develop [it]’.13 The ‘evoking of pre-existing
narrative associations’ is highly important for imaginative immersion because, if a
user does not recognise a narrative cue (such as foreshadowing or flashback), or if
the user does not have the relevant prior experience to understand an event’s
relevance, then the meaning is lost and the user is transported from the fictional
illusion back to the ‘real’ world.14 The oft-cited suspension of disbelief operates on
this idea in that the user is expected to relate to the narrative events, no matter how
__________________________________________________________________
preposterous, through a cognitive connection with prior narrative and emotional
experiences.
4. Sensory Immersion
Sensory immersion, otherwise known as perceptual immersion, can be defined
by identifying the degree to which the senses are blocked from accepting input
outside the immersive activity. Humans have long desired total sensory immersion:
landscape chambers, in which an entire room—floor to ceiling—was painted with
a landscape image in order to feel physically transported to that place, and its
opposite, sensory deprivation chambers, which block all the senses of all possible
input, have been in existence for centuries; evidence of both has been found in the
ruins of ancient Greece and Rome. The holodeck of Star Trek: The Next
Generation fame has been heralded by narratologist Janet Murray as the ‘ideal
sensory experience’ because of its landscape-chamber-like projection and reactive
nature.15
Where sensory immersion in virtual games becomes unique is how the various
elements borrowed from other representative media—particularly that of
perspective—work together to develop the player perspective. Because the player
is paramount to defining the game experience, how the player sees herself is
instrumental in how she negotiates what she can do and how she feels about those
actions. If a virtual game presents an overhead, God-like perspective, the player is
responsible for every aspect of the game and can observe every part of the game
space; immersion is less likely because the player does not feel present as there is
no one character to identify with and work through. If a virtual game is presented
from the first-person, three-dimensional perspective, immersion is more likely
because the player must inhabit the special skills and history of the character being
inhabited and can only discover and manipulate those elements of the game space
available to that character; the player, like in the illusionary spaces of old, becomes
part of the game and, unlike those spaces, the game responds to the player.16
5. Challenge-Driven Immersion
Most texts utilise imaginative and sensory immersion in an effort to provide the
user with a sense of presence: she has been transported out of her real life and into
the world of the text being consumed. But that presence cannot become immersion
without incorporating at least some sense of agency on the part of the user.17 This
use of agency is referred to as challenge-driven or nondiegetic immersion. Therrien
defines challenge-driven immersion as the ‘engrossing state of mind found in
autotelic activities [which] blur the limits of the self and the world around’.18
Everyday tasks such as exercise and cleaning could be immersive in this way as the
user is fully absorbed, to the exclusion of all else, in accomplishing a goal or
completing a necessary task.
Brittany Kuhn 25
__________________________________________________________________
Video game players who become immersed in this way shut out all other
elements of the real world in an effort to place all cognitive effort on the tasks
presented within the game; whereas this deep play has been known to happen when
playing nondigital games such as fantasy board games or gambling, it differs from
digital deep play by being focused on the acquiring of knowledge related to the
game instead of a sense of achievement. Like literature and cinema, which might
be thought to place more attention to superrealistic graphics or descriptions, the
deep play of nondigital texts would be considered diegetic, or story-based
immersion.19
6. Shared Immersion
There has been a fourth level of immersion proposed, due to research done on
virtual reality and video games: that of shared immersion. What makes this so
special in video games, and why it is seems important ‘only’ in video games, is
because players have another set of rules to negotiate in regards to social
interaction. Even in single-player games such as Mass Effect, Skyrim, or TellTale’s
episodic games, players must be conscious of how their choices will not only affect
the narrative but their in-game relationships, as well. Some would break even this
into two sublevels: social (which only refers to interacting with other human
players) and affective (which refers to how interacting with the game elements,
including NPCs, creates or manipulates emotions).20
7. Importance of Video Games as Experiences

The important thing about these levels of immersion is that Ermi’s and Mäyrä’s
research combined with Gordon Calleja’s show that video games are unique in that
they contain all four levels of immersion where other representative media seem to
only be able to activate one or two. This means that, as new video consoles and
games are released, they will attempt to further deepen the player’s immersion in
all four ways. And if the effect of video games follows the same pattern as the
effects from other representative media and technology, then the progress made in
regards to video games will begin to influence our everyday interactions, as well.
It isn’t too illogical of a leap to argue, then, that as video game technology
advances to create a more immersive game experience, such technology will
inevitably influence our primary life experience. My personal research focuses on
how these levels of immersion are starting to make an appearance in print
literature, but even more specifically, if virtual reality is happening successfully
with video games, then it is only a matter of time before that technology expands to
include more casual experiences, as well. Think of what Facebook would look like
in three or four years’ time; no longer content with sharing just photos or videos of
an event, social networking may prove futurist Michio Kaku correct when he
predicted:
__________________________________________________________________
[Media] of the future will be able to convey emotions and
feelings, not just images on a silver screen. Teenagers will go
crazy on social media, sending memories and sensations from
their senior prom, their first date, etc. Historians and writers will
be able to record events not just digitally, but also emotionally as
well.21
With the mass of cultural conversation about video games geared towards their
triteness as an escapist medium, then unfortunately much of what my research
discusses, among others, gets lost in the static. We should begin highlighting not
only to academia, but also to the public that video games are not just a thirty-year-
old entertainment fad but a new cultural phenomenon, one that is worthy of being
appreciated and studied. Only then can we truly understand what video games are,
and more importantly, what they do, which will lead to understanding the future of
our society itself.
Notes
1
Janet Murray, ‘From Game-Story to Cyberdrama’, in First Person: New Media as
Story, Performance, and Game, ed. by Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Pat Harrigan
(London: MIT Press, 2004), 2.
2
Espen Aarseth, ‘Genre Trouble: Narrativism and the Art of Simulation’, in First
Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game, ed. by Noah Wardrip-Fruin
and Pat Harrigan (London: MIT Press, 2004), 45.
3
Clara Fernandez-Vara, Introduction to Game Analysis (Routledge: London,
2015), 15.
4
Barry Atkins, More than a Game: The Computer Game as Fictional Form
(Manchester University Press: Manchester, 2003), 13-14.
5
Pearce, ‘Towards a Game Theory of Games’, 144.
6
Gonzalo Frasca, ‘Ludology Meets Narratology: Similitude and Differences
between (Video)Games and Narrative’, Ludology, originally published in Finnish
as ‘Ludologia kohtaa narratologian’, Parnasso 3 (1999), np, English version
viewed 12 March 2015, http://www.ludology.org/articles/ludology.htm.
7
Frasca, ‘Ludology Meets Narratology’, np.
8
Celia Pearce, ‘Towards a Game Theory of Games’, First Person: New Media as
Story, Performance, and Game, edited by Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Pat Harrigan,
(London: MIT Press, 2004), 144.
9
Yellowlees Douglas and Andrew Hargadon, ‘The Pleasure Principle: Immersion,
Engagement, and Flow’, Proceedings of the Eleventh ACM on Hypertext and
Hypermedia (San Antonio, Texas: Association for Computing Machinery, 2000),
viewed 18 July 2015, doi:10.1145/336296.336354, 153.
Brittany Kuhn 27
__________________________________________________________________
10
Gordon Calleja, In-Game: From Immersion to Incorporation (London: MIT
Press, 2011), 22.
11
Laura Ermi and Frans Mäyrä, ‘Fundamental Components of the Gameplay
Experience: Analysing Immersion’, in Worlds in Play: International Perspectives
on Digital Games Research 37 (New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2005), 42-44.
12
Carl Therrien, ‘Immersion’, The Routledge Companion to Video Game Studies,
edited by Mark J.P. Wolf and Bernard Perron (London: Routledge, 2014), 454.
13
Henry Jenkins, ‘Game Theory as Narrative Architecture’, First Person: New
Media as Story, Performance, and Game, ed. by Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Pat
Harrigan (London: MIT Press, 2004), 123.
14
Therrien, ‘Immersion’, 455.
15
Ibid., 452-453.
16
John Sharp, ‘Perspective’, The Routledge Companion to Video Game Studies, ed.
by Mark J.P. Wolf and Bernard Perron (London: Routledge, 2014), 112.
17
Allison McMahan, ‘Immersion, Engagement, and Presence: A Method for
Analysing 3-D Video Games’, in The Video Game Theory Reader, edited by Mark
J.P. Wolf and Bernard Perron (London: Routledge, 2003), 70-77.
18
Therrien, ‘Immersion’, 452.
19
McMahan, ‘Immersion, Engagement, and Presence’, 68.
20
Calleja, In-Game, 93-112.
21
Jacqueline Howard, ‘7 Top Futurists Make Some Pretty Surprising Predictions
about What the Next Decade Will Bring’, Huffington Post, 12 May 2015, np,
viewed 12 May 2015,
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/12/futurists-next-10-
years_n_7241210.html?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000063.
Bibliography
Aarseth, Espen. ‘Genre Trouble: Narrativism and the Art of Simulation’. In First
Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game, edited by Noah Wardrip-
Fruin and Pat Harrigan, 45-55. London: MIT Press, 2004.
Atkins, Barry. More Than a Game: The Computer Game as Fictional Form.
Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2003.
Calleja, Gordon. In-Game: From Immersion to Incorporation. London: MIT Press,

2011.
Douglas, Yellowlees and Andrew Hargadon. ‘The Pleasure Principle: Immersion,

Engagement, and Flow’. Proceedings of the Eleventh ACM on Hypertext and
__________________________________________________________________
Hypermedia. San Antonio, Texas: Association for Computing Machinery, 2000.

Accessed 18 July 2015. doi:10.1145/336296.336354, 153.
Ermi, Laura, and Frans Mäyrä. ‘Fundamental Components of the Gameplay

Experience: Analysing Immersion’. Worlds in Play: International Perspectives on
Digital Games Research 37, 37-54. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2005.
Fernández-Vara, Clara. Introduction to Game Analysis. London: Routledge, 2015.

Frasca, Gonzalo. ‘Ludology Meets Narratology: Similitude and Differences
between (Video)Games and Narrative’. Ludology. Originally published in Finnish
as ‘Ludologia kohtaa narratologian’, Parnasso 3 (1999): 365–71. English version
viewed 12 March 2015. http://www.ludology.org/articles/ludology.htm.
Howard, Jacqueline. ‘7 Top Futurists Make Some Pretty Surprising Predictions

about What the Next Decade Will Bring’. Huffington Post. 12 May 2015. Viewed
12 May 2015.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/12/futurists-next-10-
years_n_7241210.html?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000063.
Jenkins, Henry. ‘Game Theory as Narrative Architecture’. In First Person: New

Media as Story, Performance, and Game, edited by Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Pat
Harrigan, 118-130. London: MIT Press, 2004.
Murray, Janet. ‘From Game-Story to Cyberdrama’. In First Person: New Media as

Story, Performance, and Game, edited by Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Pat Harrigan,
2-11. London: MIT Press, 2004.
Sharp, John. ‘Perspective’. The Routledge Companion to Video Game Studies,

edited by Mark J.P. Wolf and Bernard Perron, 107-116. London: Routledge, 2014.
Brittany Kuhn is a doctoral candidate at the University of Essex in Colchester,

UK. Her research focuses on the effects of video game immersion on
contemporary print literature. She has presented and published on the topics of
interactive/ergodic literature, determinism in video games, and immersion in video
games and contemporary literature.
Ludic Narratology: Creating a Theory of Structure in Choice-
Based Video Game Narratives
Kieran Wilson
Abstract
Many researchers in the area of literary studies fail to see the merits studying video
games as a novel literary form might have. This is – in part – due to the inadequacy
of the critical tools available to analyse games. Particularly, narrative theory is, for
the most part, based around single-stranded linear narratives and is therefore unfit
to analyse video games, notably games which feature the ludic experience of a
changing narrative based on the player’s choices in game. By analysing the
narrative structures of various games of this type – BioWare’s Mass Effect series,
Dontnod’s Life Is Strange, and Galactic Cafe’s The Stanley Parable – a general
theory of multi-stranded game narratives emerges. This theory incorporates
multiple strata of narrative structure, including core scripted elements, optional
scripted elements, and unscripted elements. This theory of narrative seeks to
explain and resolve certain issues with analysing video games as literary texts. In
particular, it engages with games with multiple endings, narrative threads, or
optional content. This includes – but is not limited to – analysing how a player’s
perception of character, setting, or plot changes depending upon choices made. As
a theoretical by-product, it also engages with player-embodiment and immersion,
as well as completionism – factors that are ubiquitous to the gaming experience.
The implications of this theory are widespread and interdisciplinary. For narrative
theory and literary studies, it shows that tools for analysing video games, and other
new emerging modes such as hypertext fictions, still need to be developed to
further our understanding of these novel forms. For game studies, it is an
illustration of the applications of narratology in the field, contributing perhaps to
reconciling the ‘ludology vs narratology’ debate and finding a common ground and
synthesis between these two approaches to game studies.
Key Words: Narratology, literary theory, game studies, ludology, choice-based

narrative, ludology vs narratology, interdisciplinary.
*****
1. Introduction
Due to the growing interest of critics in the literary merits of video games, it is
become increasingly important to be able to discuss the narrative of video games in
an academic setting. However, while interest is growing, a great many literary
academics fail to see the importance of video games as a storytelling medium and
dismiss the form due to inexperience with it. This is, in part, due to a lack of
adequate theoretical tools available to analyse video games as literary works. This
30 Ludic Narratology
__________________________________________________________________
is because video games, unlike other, more ‘traditional’ forms of narrative often
have branching narratives or optional sections which make them difficult to discuss
with other people who are not aware of certain optional branches or alternate
endings. In such games, creating and shaping the story of the game through the
player’s choices is a vital part of the gameplay, referred to as ‘ludic narratology.’
By examining games which feature ludic narratology as a game mechanic, it is
possible to create a theory of narrative which is more compatible with video games
as a whole, and therefore provide a theoretical tool with which to analyse video
games as a storytelling medium.
2. Theoretical Concerns
Before discussing the model of narrative present in this chapter it will be
important to discuss the theoretical background to this theory. A great deal of the
discussion of narrative in video games up to this point has dealt with the ludology
vs narratology debate. While this chapter is not specifically engaged with this
debate, it does offer a potential solution to it. The debate centres on the viability of
using narratological techniques to analyse video games, as opposed to using new
tools or treating video games as something unique and different to other forms of
narrative. As a result, much of the narratological work which has been done in
games studies seeks to answer the question of whether narratology is relevant,
rather than actually analysing video games and their narrative structures.1
Lindley describes one potential model of video game narratives as having both
constructed and emergent sections, but there is an implication that these parts of
the narrative are somewhat distanced from constructed narratives.2 The theory of
narrative presented in this chapter seeks to illustrate the ways in which story and
gameplay are synthesised to create a cohesive narrative in which all of the pieces
of the narrative are reliant on one another.
In addition, another concern which needs to be addressed to the form that this
model takes, one which is concerned primarily with structure in the narrative.
While structuralism is not generally well regarded in most contemporary forms of
literary and narrative analysis, video games are by their very nature highly
structured. This is not merely because they are created from blocks of code, but
also because there are often roadblocks or areas of games which must be played in
a certain order, unlocking the ability to do one section only having completed
another. Structuralist theories of narrative, such as Propp’s Morphology of the
Folktale were an inspiration for parts of the theory set out in this chapter – and like
Propp’s work – this model suggests that, in some ways, all games are of ‘one type’
with regard to their structure.3 In addition, the idea of a cognitive schema was also
relevant, as the different levels of narrative found in video games are constructed
as mental spaces in the minds of players – who frequently make distinctions
between such areas as ‘main story’, ‘sidequests’, and ‘gameplay’.4
Kieran Wilson 31
__________________________________________________________________
Hence, this theory sets out to describe the general form of video game
narratives, using examples from the emerging canon in order to construct the
theory – rather than constructing the theory in order to describe a particular game
specifically.
3. The Stratified Model at a Glance

Unlike most of the previous models of video game narrative discussed above,
this theory is made up of three different sections, as opposed to two. The reasons
for considering more than two sections of the narrative are numerous. Firstly, a
binary theory of narrative between scripted events and an ‘emergent narrative’
serves to reinforce the ludo-narrative divide that pervades game studies and
criticism, such as game mechanics not needing to be explainable by the ‘narrative’.
In addition, by considering more than two areas within narrative, this theory allows
for less of a binary view of features within narratives of video games – for
example, it allows for a consideration of optional content (downloadable content,
sidequests, etc.) as belonging to a separate part of the narrative than the ‘main
story’, and gives these parts of video games a place within a theory of narrative
which accounts for their optionality. Finally, this model’s three-stratum approach
has interesting implications outside of literary studies, specifically in the field of
player psychology – these will be discussed in §4.
This model stratifies elements in the narrative of a video game based on their
optionality into three levels. Stratum 1 (S1) contains what are called ‘Core Scripted
Elements’. These elements are ‘core’ because they are the minimal number of
game events which must be experienced by the player in order to reach the end of
the game (usually the ending credits). This does not include events that can be
skipped by in-game bugs or glitches, though the implications of these will be
discussed briefly in §4.
Stratum 2 (S2) of this model contains optional elements which are not required
to reach the game’s conclusion, but are still primarily scripted by the developer.
The classical example of narrative elements of this type is the sidequest. While
sidequests are often rich in story or gameplay, and occasionally can increase the
player’s knowledge of the game world or their fighting potential, they are notably
never required for a player to finish the game, and this optionality makes them
difficult to discuss in an academic context – using a traditional narrative model
because – particularly in a classroom context – one must either make the
assumption that all parties have completed the optional elements of the game, or
that none have, the latter obviously making such discussion impossible.
The third stratum (S3) of this model encompasses what is traditionally known
as ‘Emergent Narratives’ – usually those found in gameplay. This stratum is not
generally scripted by the developer in terms of its writing or structure, though
elements in this stratum are by necessity contained within the settings and
parameters of the game world. Non-player character AI and the objects and
__________________________________________________________________
locations in the game world are vital to the events in this stratum, and a player’s
experience of elements in this stratum will differ wildly between players and
within multiple play-throughs by one player.
One important thing to note about this model of narrative in games is that
elements which involve discrete choices made by the player are not strictly
delineated. As far as the model is concerned all possible outcomes are rendered in
a kind of ‘narrative superposition’ in an ‘event block’ until the conditions for one
particular outcome are fulfilled by the player. For this reason, this theory makes no
claims about how ‘canon’ a particular choice is. This is still the case even if a
particular choice requires more ‘work’ on the part of the player e.g. the completion
of a particular sidequest or reaching a particular point in the S1 narrative. Such
judgements are better suited to criticism of a game in its own right, whereas this
theory of narrative seeks only to describe structure and form.
Figure 1 below is a visual representation of the model.
Element 1 Element 2 Element 3

Stratum 1
- Outcome 1
- Outcome 2
- Outcome 3
-…
Element A Element B Element θ

Stratum 2
- Outcome 1 Only if A is Unrelated to A
- Outcome 2 completed. and B.
- Outcome 3
-… - Outcomes - Outcomes
Stratum 3
Various Spontaneous Elements
Figure 1: A Visual Representation of the Stratified Model of Game Narratives ©

2015. Courtesy of Kieran Wilson.
We will now examine each stratum in slightly more detail with examples of
elements of particular strata, as well as a brief discussion of choice within each
Kieran Wilson 33
__________________________________________________________________
strata and how it motivates the narrative in different ways, in addition to how
elements in these three strata can influence events in other strata.
A. Stratum 1: Core Scripted Elements

Elements within Stratum 1 are those which are most closely analogous to other
forms of media outside of video games. Specifically, the elements in S1 are the
‘main story’, and if one were to transcribe a video game into a novel or play, these
would be the events which would make up the bulk of the narrative (in addition to
some explanation of a particular permutation of S3 elements). This is not to say,
however, that S1 elements also necessarily have only one permutation, although in
a great many games they do – for example, the S1 events of Final Fantasy X is the
same every time the game is played by every player who plays it.5 However, in
games where ludic narratology is a prominent game mechanic – that is to say,
influencing the story is within the power of the player – the elements within the S1
narrative are mutable to a certain extent.
For example, several of the S1 elements in the Mass Effect trilogy can be
altered within certain pre-scripted parameters.6 In Mass Effect 3 specifically, the
outcome of the war between the Quarians and the Geth can either result in the
extinction of one of the two species, or in peace for both parties.7 The former two
of these choices are what one might be tempted to call the ‘basic’ choices, while
the last of the three requires a more complex route to achieve in that S2 elements
are required to influence S1 elements, which will be discussed in §3B.
Further to this, it is important to consider situations where S1 elements can
influence the progression of S2 and S3 elements in the narrative. This is, perhaps,
the most common instance of a stratum influencing others, because S2 and S3
elements are often ‘licenced’ by the progression of S1. For example, a setting/game
space may be introduced through necessary events in the S1 narrative where
triggers for S2 sidequests may be found, or the S1 narrative necessitates combat or
problem-solving in the S3 domain.
B. Stratum 2: Optional Scripted Elements

Elements in Stratum 2 are story elements which add to the overall game-world
narrative in some way but are never mandatory for progression towards the end of
the game. These story elements are still scripted, often having some form of
cutscene, and can potentially have as much room for player choice as S1 elements
do. The most important thing about S2 elements is that their optionality sets them
apart from S1 elements. S2 elements have the capacity to explore areas in the
background of the main plot of a story in ways that would be obtrusive to the main
story, such as exploring the motivations and backgrounds of secondary or minor
characters or developing the world-building of the game in the player’s own time if
they so choose. This choice-based element of the S2 narrative is almost entirely
__________________________________________________________________
unique to video games as a form, which is why most theories of narrative struggle
to accommodate for it.
Player choice not only impacts the progression of the events within an S2
element, but the player’s mere choice of whether or not to experience S2 elements
can occasionally influence both the S1 and S3 narratives. For example, as
previously mentioned, in Mass Effect 3 the resolution to the Quarian/Geth conflict
has three possible permutations. While two of these are available to all players,
regardless of the previous S1 and S2 decisions they make (both in Mass Effect 3
itself, and in its predecessor Mass Effect 2), the third ending to this conflict
requires a certain number of choices to be made by the player in both Mass Effect 3
and Mass Effect 2, most of which are made during entirely optional events.8 While
the discussion of save-importing in this model would take a great deal of time to
analyse, the potential for optional events altering potential choices in the S1
narrative is nevertheless not to be underestimated.
Due to the similarity between S1 and S2 elements (at least on the surface), it
should not be surprising that the S3 narrative can be influenced by the creation of
situations such combat and puzzles which require S3/gameplay scenarios to be
resolved. The crucial differences here are the ways in which S1 and S2 elements
often differ in the level of challenge given to players. S3 elements which are
motivated by S2 ones often have a greater level of difficulty, and also potentially
have a greater level of reward to the player – either in-game or through personal
satisfaction. For example, the ‘optional superboss’ present in many role-playing
games is generally placed at the end of a sidequest required to fight it. This
presents a challenge to players who wish to test their own skill which would be
exclusionary to include as motivated by the S1 narrative due to differing skill
levels of players.
C. Stratum 3: ‘Emergent Narratives’

While most of the elements which make up stratum three of this model are
usually referred to as ‘emergent narrative’, this term has certain connotations of a
slow revelation of narrative elements over time, which is not particularly suitable
for the phenomena which this model seeks to describe.9 For this reason the terms
‘non-scripted narrative’ or ‘spontaneous narrative’ are more accurate for describing
the characteristics of events on this strata.
While the first two strata often necessitate player interaction, and choice is
incredibly important – particularly for S2 narratives – the S3 narrative is primarily
motivated by the player’s interaction with the world. Combat, puzzles, and in-game
roleplaying all make up aspects of this stratum, and the constant choice and
(frequent) unpredictability of the situations in the game world can cause
spontaneous narrative elements to appear.
This stratum is also crucial for creating the concept of immersion for the player.
From personal experience, when narrating gameplay, a great number of players
Kieran Wilson 35
__________________________________________________________________
will use personal pronouns when describing elements on S3, while they may not
necessarily use those same personal pronouns to describe events from other strata.
Notably, the events of multiplayer online games (particularly in the First-Person
Shooter and Multiplayer Online Battle Arena genres – for example League of
Legends) are often primarily driven by S3 elements, anecdotes which players tell to
other players to relate experiences derived from particular matches or situations.
While general situations where S3 can influence S1 and S2 elements are rare,
there are situations where gameplay elements can affect a player’s perception of
events on S1 or S2. One notable recent example is Dontnod’s Life is Strange, a
game in which the story is told through choices the player makes in reaction to
situations and in conversations with people.10 In this sort of game where ludic
narratology is an important feature, player choice is already an essential aspect.
However, the crucial thing which sets Life is Strange apart from other similar
games is the main mechanic of the game – the ability of the protagonist (Max) to
rewind time. This allows players to preview a decision they have made on either
S1 or S2, and see the immediate consequences or reactions of non-player
characters to their choice. Importantly, this is an action which – for the most part,
outside of the beginning tutorial sections of the game – is entirely optional and
player-motivated; hence it is an element on stratum 3.
4. Theoretical Outcomes, By-Products, and Conclusion

This theory of narrative structure in video games is a lot more flexible for
examining the various intricacies and inter-dependencies on different kinds of
storytelling content that video games offer as a form. As an outcome of this theory,
it is a lot easier to analyse games with a heavy emphasis on optional content and
player choice. Furthermore, while slightly difficult due to their unusual structure,
this model makes it a lot easier for critics to analyse games such as The Stanley
Parable – in which the ludo-narrative gameplay is such that one can and often is
fighting against the whims of an ‘omniscient’ narrator who wishes to keep the
player on what would otherwise be the S1 narrative in a more traditional game.11
In addition, this theory potentially has interesting implications in the realm of
player psychology – for example analysing which strata (or lack thereof) are
prioritised by gamers who fall into certain archetypical categories (completionism,
combat-focussed players, story-focussed players, etc.). In particular, the act of
speedrunning – and the ways in which it often attempts to utilise in-game glitches
and bugs to skip sections of the S1 narrative – could be considered an interesting
area of research within this theory.
To conclude, this theory of narrative is an attempt to reconcile certain debates
about the compatibility of ludic and narrative elements of games, and also to
expand currently existing models of video game narrative to make them more
flexible and able to describe a wider variety of story-based games, mostly those
__________________________________________________________________
which have a ludic narratology mechanic where part of the goal of the game is for
the player to decide how the story develops.
This model attempts to do this by utilising a structure that emphasises optional
and choice-based elements in addition to describing the ways in which different
elements of a video game narrative interact. Further work on this theory would
involve describing the different strata in greater detail and showing different
examples of the ways it can apply. Furthermore, this model could equally be used
to attempt to analyse many pieces of hypertext digital fictions, not just video
games, which often have a similar amount of optional or choice-based content.
Notes
1
Matthew Tyler-Jones. ‘Ludology vs. Narratology’, Memetechnology.org (blog),
May 4, 2013, viewed on 18 October 2015,
http://memetechnology.org/2013/05/04/ludology-vs-narratology/.
2
Craig A. Lindley, ‘Story and Narrative Structures in Computer Games’,
Developing Interactive Narrative Content, ed. Brunhild Bushoff (Munich: High
Text, 2005), viewed 18 October 2015,
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.119.797&rep=rep1&typ
e=pdf.
3
Vladimir Propp, Morphology of the Folktale (Austin: University of Texas Press,
1968): 23.
4
‘Schemata are cognitive structures representing generic knowledge, i.e. structures
which do not contain information about particular entities, instances or events, but
rather about their general form. Catherine Emmott and Marc Alexander,
‘Schemata’, The Living Handbook of Narratology, 22 April 2014, viewed on 18
October 2015, http://www.lhn.uni-hamburg.de/article/schemata.
5
Final Fantasy X, dev. Squaresoft. Tokyo: Squaresoft, 2001, Playstation 2 Disc.
6
Mass Effect, Edmonton: BioWare, 2007, Digital Download.
7
Mass Effect 3, Edmonton: BioWare, 2012, Digital Download.
8
Mass Effect 2, Edmonton: BioWare, 2010, Digital Download.
9
Sandy Louchart and Ruth Aylett, ‘The Emergent Narrative Theoretical
Investigation’, The International Journal of Continuing Engineering Education
and Lifelong Leaning 14.6 (2004): 506-518: viewed on 10 October 2015,
http://www.macs.hw.ac.uk/~ruth/Papers/narrative/IJCEELL05.pdf.
10
Life Is Strange, Paris: Dontnod, 2015, Digital Download.
11
The Stanley Parable, Galactic Cafe, 2013, Digital Download.
Kieran Wilson 37
__________________________________________________________________
Bibliography
Emmott, Catherine and Marc Alexader. ‘Schemata’. The Living Handbook of
Narratology. 22 April 2014. Viewed on 18 October 2015.
http://www.lhn.uni-hamburg.de/article/schemata.
Final Fantasy X. Tokyo: Squaresoft, 2001. Playstation 2 Disc.
Life Is Strange. Paris: Dontnod, 2015. Digital Download.
Lindley, Craig A. ‘Story and Narrative Structures in Computer Games’.

Developing Interactive Narrative Content, edited by Brunhild Bushoff. Munich:
High Text, 2005. Viewed on 18 October 2015.
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.119.797&rep=rep1&typ
e=pdf.
Louchart, Sandy and Ruth Aylett. ‘The Emergent Narrative Theoretical

Investigation’. The International Journal of Continuuing Engineering Education
and Lifelong Leaning 14.6 (2004): 506-518. Viewed on 10 October 2015.
http://www.macs.hw.ac.uk/~ruth/Papers/narrative/IJCEELL05.pdf.
Mass Effect. Edmonton: BioWare, 2007. Digital Download.
Mass Effect 2. Edmonton: BioWare, 2010. Digital Download.
Mass Effect 3. Edmonton: BioWare, 2012. Digital Download.
Propp, Vladimir. Morphology of the Folktale. Austin: University of Texas Press,

1968.
The Stanley Parable. Galactic Cafe, 2013. Digital Download.
Tyler-Jones, Matthew. ‘Ludology vs. Narratology’. Memetechnology.org (blog).

May 4, 2013. Viewed on 18 October 2015.
http://memetechnology.org/2013/05/04/ludology-vs-narratology/.
Kieran Wilson is an MA (Hons) Undergraduate student at the University of

Edinburgh studying English Language and Literature. His research interests
include narratology, literary linguistics, stylistics, and theorising emerging forms of
cultural expression. Contact e-mail address: s1236848@sms.ed.ac.uk.
Observing Iterative Design on the Game Dominaedro
Vicente Martin Mastrocola

Abstract
Smartphones and tablets lead sales of electronic devices around the world and offer
a rich field to explore gaming initiatives. Mobile media created a ludic ecosystem
in which large publishers and small studios coexist; the new ways of digital content
distribution allowed a gaming market with big productions and indie experiments
to live in the same platforms. In this scenario, we want to analyse a development
process involving an independent Brazilian mobile game named Dominaedro,
launched by Ludofy Studio in 2014. Our focus in this work will be to discuss
iterative design – a design methodology based on a cyclic process of prototyping,
testing, analysing, and refining a work in progress. In this context, we understand
iterative design as a methodological tool to create a game. We intend to observe
this kind of development process, emphasizing the analogical prototyping phase
that gives us feedbacks from the beta-testing players, as in a qualitative research.
Finally, we present the importance of the iterative design to quality assurance in
the digital version of the game. Data collected through 20 beta testing sessions
showed the importance of iterative process to improve a gaming experience and to
facilitate the production of the digital product. Based on this content we will
demonstrate the whole process of creating a mobile game – from the idea, through
the prototypes, until reaching the final version. We conclude, highlighting the
current tendency to create indie games using accurate design methodologies to gain
audience in a very competitive scenario, and how indie games could be a learning
point for aspirational game designers and small publishers; we will also emphasize
the importance of using digital social networks and specialized media to publish
and support an independent game.
Key Words: Entertainment, mobile, iterative process, Dominaedro, indie game,

Brazil.
*****
1. Introduction
Undoubtedly, the contemporary multiplatform environment, with so many
connections between different devices, became a rich ambient for ludic
experiments and new gaming interfaces. In this scenario, videogames are
expanding possibilities beyond consoles and reaching players in a huge range,
where mobile platforms appear prominently as a privileged place for great
publishers and independent studios.
40 Observing Iterative Design on the Game Dominaedro
__________________________________________________________________
The logic of anytime/anywhere connection present in mobile platforms is a
turning point for new business models and entertainment products around the
world. Inside this scenario, Brazil is revealed as a market full of possibilities. As an
emergent country, Brazil is a land of contrasts. The country is the fifth largest in
the world, it has the sixth largest population and it ranks seventh in terms of
Internet usage. Brazilians are heavy Internet users, spending the largest average
number of hours online in Latin America.1
It may sound curious, but it is a fact: the number of mobile phones in Brazil
nowadays is larger than the size of its population. In the beginning of 2015, more
than 283 million phone lines were in activity in the country and more than 40
million smartphones are expected to be working.2 This is an important point to
highlight because in the last five years mobile Internet access has become
dominant in Brazil. A recent study from Nielsen has found that Brazilian mobile
users mainly download games, social networks and video applications.3
Despite all potential, Brazil does not have a formal gaming industry. The
inexistence of big publishers or major companies prevents the massive
development of games for consoles or PC platform. On the other hand, mobile
platforms reveal interesting ways to show Brazilian gaming products to the world.
It is essential to point out some characteristics of the Brazilian gaming scene, to
shed light on the common sense that the game industry refers only to videogame
consoles or mainstream PC games. This perception is something that specialized
media seems to emphasize, because that seems to be the preference of games heavy
users - although, as seen through research, the casual gamer plays more games and
for longer than the hard core gamer.4
Lots of small publishers and studios are arising in the Brazilian mobile gaming
scenario. Many mobile powerhouses and advertising agencies are creating spaces
for game developing inside their structures. As examples to our discussion, we can
bring the Brazilian companies PontoMobi Mobile Solutions, Sioux Game Studio
and Ludofy Creative Mobile, the last one responsible for Dominaedro, the game
we bring as the protagonist in this work. It is not the focus of this chapter, but it is
also important to highlight that social media games and advergames (games
created for brands, products and services) are another way Brazilian game
designers and companies found to make their games profit.
Based on this gaming scenario, we will observe the Dominaedro game and its
main features to further discuss the methodological and creative process of this
game. We intend to show that even independent small games require accurate
processes to materialize themselves with quality assurance and relevant fun
components.
2. About Dominaedro
Dominaedro is a strategic puzzle that mixes dominoes and tic-tac-toe. The
game can be played versus the computer or other player online and it is available
Vicente Martin Mastrocola 41
__________________________________________________________________
for iPad and iPhone. This game fits the casual game category, defined as games
that are quick to play with simple mechanics and accessible to players with
different ability levels; in this kind of game the rules and goals must be clear,
players need to be able to quickly reach proficiency and the gameplay must adapt
itself to a player´s life and schedule.5
The game mechanics are very simple and are represented in a few steps in the
game’s tutorial. The game’s grid is arranged with nine numbers from 1 to 12
(Image 1 - A) randomly selected by the system.
A player starting hand has 3 domino pieces. On a turn, a player must try to put
a single piece in the grid respecting the following rules: 1) A number in a domino
can only touch a piece with the same number, or lower, in the grid and you can use
both sides; every time you choose a piece, the system will point out the spaces
allowed for allocating on the table. (Image 1 - B); 2) Like in a domino game,
pieces connected on the grid must have the same numbers (Image 1 - C).
Image 1: Dominaedro’s interface and mechanics © 2014. Courtesy of Vicente

Martin Mastrocola.
A player earn points by dominating a sum on the grid, like the computer
(orange) that scored 7 points by dominating all the sides of the superior 7 on the
grid (Image 1 - C). For that, a player with the highest sum of numbers around a
piece wins the points. In the case of a tie, the sum of the second value of dominoes
sets the winner. If there is a tie in both sides of the dominoes, the winner will be
the player with more pieces.
__________________________________________________________________
The game ends when a player cannot allocate more pieces on the grid. Each
piece not allocated is worth -1 point. Values of the grid that were not completely
surrounded by pieces are scored normally.
In trying to hybridize with the mechanics, the interface is minimalist and the
focus is centred on gameplay. It is important to remember that gameplay is only
one element in the composition of modern games and it means some interesting
choices.6 Schell says that the goal of a good gaming interface isn’t ‘to look nice’ or
‘to be fluid’; although those are nice qualities, the goal of an interface is to make
players feel in control of their experience.7
Much is said about interface in games today. After long discussions, producers
and game designers discovered that a merely beautiful game does not work as a
product or as a good experience to different kinds of players. Simplicity and
organization should still be the design goal, the user will enjoy being able to look
at a screen and instantly know what to do.8 This balance between interface,
experience and gameplay will be discussed in our next topic, where we bring the
iterative design as a methodological process to create a mobile game.
For more information, a video in YouTube explains with motion graphics the
main features of Dominaedro.9 The game is available for free in Apple’s App Store
and we will talk – in the last topic of this work - about the model business and
launching campaign.
3. Methods and Results

Gaming creativity process, allow a myriad of methodological using
possibilities. However, in this text we intend to focus our efforts in study the
iterative process during the creation of Dominaedro.
One first view about this methodological process comes from Zimmerman, who
says, ‘iterative design is a design methodology based on a cyclic process of
prototyping, testing, analysing, and refining a work in progress’.10
Complementing the previous idea, the process of iterative design for games,
can be divided into few stages: A) conceptual phase: consists of generating ideas,
formalizing and testing them; B) pre-production: here the ideas are reviewed to
evolve and be tested again; C) the production stage: the game is tested and revised
with different groups of play testers to locate errors; D) phase of quality assurance:
where the game is tested to be launched without errors.11
We will discuss each phase of this process detailed below:
A) Conceptual phase: in this first step, Dominaedro’s producers (me included
among them) conducted a wide net of research playing abstract games (analogical
and digital) to develop the first mechanical ideas of the game; games like chess,
checkers and yinsh provided part of the inspiration for the project. A series of notes
and references were made in this phase and, in the end, there was a draft with the
core mechanics, main dynamics and number of players allowed in the game. In the
__________________________________________________________________
conceptual phase occurred the first gaming tests amongst the few different groups
of players involved with the project.
B) Pre-production: here the ideas were reviewed to evolve to testing; by the end
of this phase, an analogical prototype – created with polyhedral dice and dominoes
– was ready for accurate tests. It is important to say that this phase was
fundamental to visualize some components like art and programming. In the pre-
production, we could test the game with beta-tester groups and organize a dialogue
between different kinds of players as an inspirational key to open some new
passages in the game design process. Some feedbacks from players in interviews
are nuclear guides to improve a game’s mechanics, dynamics, narrative and layout.
Image 2: Dominaedro’s analogical prototype © 2014. Courtesy of Vicente Martin

Mastrocola.
In this context, it is always essential to remember that games ‘are

fundamentally interactive, relying on communication between the player and their
character, the player and the content, and even players with one another’ and it’s
crucial to ponder that ‘while games are developed in a studio, at least part of their
meaning and significance is created at the moment of play and through the people
who play them’.12
Based on these thoughts a qualitative interview was created to be applied with
the beta testing players after Dominaedro’s playing sessions. The idea was to
understand strengths and weaknesses to be worked in the next phase of the process.
The qualitative method is one of many good ways to understand the creation of
__________________________________________________________________
meaning and significance in a gaming interface. To conduct a qualitative interview
it’s necessary to have a good script with clear objects imbricated in the questions.
Cote and Raz teaches us how to write a qualitative interview guide adapted for a
gaming universe:13
1. Create an introductory script to open the interview and remind study goals.
2. Warm-up questions to put the participant at ease and build rapport. Questions
like ‘How long have you been playing videogames for?’ and ‘What’s one of your
favourite gaming memories?’ are good kick-starting contents.
3. Substantive questions to collect deeper data that answers the research
questions. This part is the core of the interview, here the player will give feedbacks
about gaming interface, mechanics and other aspects. For Dominaedro’s beta
testing the following questions were proposed to the interviewed players:
3a) Talk about your experience with Dominaedro
3b) Did the game work or not?
3c) Did you feel challenged by your opponent?
3d) Are the rules small, medium or complex to understand?
3e) At the end of the first game, did you feel the urge to play again?
3f) Did you have fun with the game?
3g) Feel free to add any comments about the game.
4. Demographic questions to gather data needed to describe participants14
Ten beta sessions were conducted with almost twenty different players in
ESPM University Game Lab and some game stores in the city of São Paulo. The
last ten sessions pointed some repetitive results signalizing a good data stored for
the next phase. Applying qualitative process with iterative design is a great
challenge for the game designing process but it is an essential component for a
better development process. Armed with enough data, we leave for the next stage
of the process.
C) Production stage: a digital Dominaedro prototype was developed in this
phase. After the playing sessions with the analogical prototype and player’s
feedback, the producers started to refine the digital prototype planning the final
interface. This digital version was tested and revised with ten different groups of
new players to locate problems and searching an error-free product using the same
previous qualitative interview guide.15 Based on beta-test player feedbacks, a
minimal artwork was established for the game using simple angular graphics and
soft colours (as seen previously in image 1).
D) Quality assurance: final tests were made on a multiplayer system. In the
final stage of producing the game, new tests were performed in different versions
of the iPhone/iPad, to ensure a good experience.
It is fundamental to remember that the iterative design is a cyclical process. In
case of failure in any one of the stages – or if the final result is not achieved
__________________________________________________________________
adequately – the developers must return to the starting point to rethink and
redesign the failure points. The qualitative research inside the pre-production phase
is one of the most important points of this process; testing a game is not about the
developers playing a prototype many times. The idea is to allow different people to
test and get the greatest number of feedbacks possible. Even for an independent
game created by a small studio like Dominaedro, it is essential to use accurate
methodology processes to create a quality product for an increasingly qualified
audience. With the game produced and fully operational, we reach another
challenging stage of the process: the launching.
The game was launched in the Apple App Store for free (with ads as per the
business model) and managed to get almost 10,000 downloads in its third month.
Specialized sites like www.indiegames.com published posts about the game.16 It is
important to highlight that, especially for indie games, it is essential to use some
budget for Facebook advertising and a digital media kit destined to specialized
media (mainly blogs and fan pages).
4. Conclusions
By discussing the creative process of Dominaedro, we hope to demonstrate
how strong the relationship is between players and companies in the contemporary
digital gaming ecosystem. We claim it is of utmost importance to use this type of
methodological process even for independent productions.
Despite being a game created by a small studio, we can see the importance of
working with a consistent methodology, and it is possible to imagine the iterative
process applied in bigger projects. We hope we can contribute with the field of
gaming studies and that this discussion earns future developments.
The Brazilian gaming market, as an emergent market, reveals itself as a
privileged ambient to observe these creativity processes. We welcome the
opportunity to present this relevant discussion as a means of contributing to the on-
going efforts in exploring the gaming market in contemporary culture.
Notes
1
‘Brazilian Internet Users Spend Close to 30 Hours a Month Online’, Tech In
Brazil (blog), August 20, 2014, Viewed on 16 October 2015,
http://techinbrazil.com/data-feed/brazilian-internet-users-spend-close-to-30-hours-
a-month-online.
2
‘Estatísticas de Celulares no Brasil’, Teleco.com.br (blog), October 8, 2015,
Viewed on 16 October 2015,
http://teleco.com.br/ncel.asp.
__________________________________________________________________
3
‘The Mobile Consumer Research’, Nielsen, February 1, 2013, Viewed on 16
October 2015, http://www.nielsen.com/content/dam/corporate/us/en/reports-
downloads/2013%20Reports/Mobile-Consumer-Report-2013.pdf.
4
Jesper Juul. A Casual Revolution. (Massachussets: MIT Press, 2010).
5
Gregory Trefay, Casual Game Design (Burlington: Morgan Kaufmann, 2010), 1.
6
Ernest Adams and Andrew Rollings, Game Architecture and Design
(Indianapolis: New Riders, 2004), 59.
7
Jesse Schell, The Art of Game Design (Burlington: Elsevier, 2008), 222.
8
Fox Brent, Game Interface Design (Boston: Thomson, 2005), 69.
9
Rafael Verri, ‘Dominaedro’s Trailer’, YouTube, June 10, 2014, Viewed on 16
October 2015, https://youtu.be/LCF0Mel__z8.
10
Eric Zimmerman, ‘Play as Research: The Iterative Design Process’, Eric
Zimmerman (blog), July 8, 2003, Viewed on 16 October 2015,
http://ericzimmerman.com/files/texts/Iterative_Design.htm.
11
Tracy Fullerton, Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating
Innovative Games (Burlington: Morgan Kaufmann, 2008), 249.
12
Amanda Cote and Julia Raz, ‘In-Depth Interviews for Game Research’, Game
Research Methods: An Overview, ed. Petri Lankoski and Staffan Björk (Halifax:
ETC Press, 2015), 93.
13
Cote and Raz, ‘In-Depth Interviews for Game Research’, 104.
14
Cote and Raz, ‘In-Depth Interviews for Game Research’, 104.
15
Holopainen Jussi, Nummenmaa Timo and Kuittinen Jussi, ‘Modelling
Experimental Game Design’ (paper presented at DiGRA Nordic, Stockholm,
August 16-17, 2010).
16
Lena LeRay, ‘Dominaedro Is Part Dominoes, Part Tic-Tac-Toe, and All Strategy
Game’, IndieGames.com (blog), July 7, 2014, Viewed on 16 October 2015,
http://indiegames.com/2014/07/free_ios_pick_dominaedro_is_a_.html.
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Adams, Ernest and Andrew Rollings. Game Architecture and Design. Indianapolis:
New Riders, 2004.
‘Brazilian Internet Users Spend Close to 30 Hours a Month Online’. Tech In Brazil
(blog). August 20, 2014. Viewed on 16 October 2015.
http://techinbrazil.com/data-feed/brazilian-internet-users-spend-close-to-30-hours-
a-month-online.
Brent, Fox. Game Interface Design. Boston: Thomson, 2005.

__________________________________________________________________
Cote, Amanda and Julia Raz. ‘In-Depth Interviews for Game Research’. Game
Research Methods: An Overview, edited by Petri Lankoski and Staffan Björk, 93-
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‘Estatísticas de Celulares no Brasil’. Teleco.com.br (blog). October 8, 2015.

Viewed on 16 October 2015. http://teleco.com.br/ncel.asp.
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Innovative Games. Burlington: Morgan Kaufmann, 2008.
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Experimental Game Design’. Paper presented at DiGRA Nordic, Stockholm,
August 16-17, 2010.
Juul, Jesper. A Casual Revolution. Massachussets: MIT Press, 2010.
LeRay, Lena. ‘Dominaedro Is Part Dominoes, Part Tic-Tac-Toe, and All Strategy
Game’. IndieGames.com (blog). July 7, 2014. Viewed on 16 October 2015.
http://indiegames.com/2014/07/free_ios_pick_dominaedro_is_a_.html.
Schell, Jesse. The Art of Game Design. Burlington: Elsevier, 2008.
‘The Mobile Consumer Research’. Nielsen. February 1, 2013. Viewed on 16

October 2015. http://www.nielsen.com/content/dam/corporate/us/en/reports-
downloads/2013%20Reports/Mobile-Consumer-Report-2013.pdf.
Trefay, Gregory. Casual Game Design. Burlington: Morgan Kaufmann, 2010.
Verri, Rafael. ‘Dominaedro’s Trailer’. YouTube. June 10, 2014. Viewed on 16

October 2015. https://youtu.be/LCF0Mel__z8.
Zimmerman, Eric. ‘Play as Research: The Iterative Design Process’. Eric

Zimmerman (blog). July 2003. Viewed on 16 October 2015.
http://ericzimmerman.com/files/texts/Iterative_Design.htm.
Vicente Martin Mastrocola is a postgraduate research student and graduation

level teacher at ESPM/São Paulo, Brazil. Vicente also works as game designer
developing games for mobile and analogical platforms. E-mail:
vincevader@gmail.com.
Part II
Individual Impact byVideogames

Cognitive Dissonance as an Ethical Instrument of Metamodern
Aesthetic in Spec Ops: The Line
Felix Schniz
Abstract
Leisure time entertainment and moral education are often regarded as
incompatible. The third-person shooter Spec Ops: The Line makes use of this
opposition to create a psychologically uncomfortable player experience: it
generates an erratic oscillation between supposed gaming for entertainment and
constant reminders about the unethical behaviour it imposes on player agency. To
illustrate this phenomenon, the following chapter discusses three instances which
provoke mental tension – referred to as cognitive dissonance in accordance to Leon
Festinger – in Spec Ops: The Line: the gameplay, the loading screens and an
exemplary moral dilemma the player faces during the eighth chapter of the game. I
portray how these samples consecutively raise cognitive dissonance from a level of
foundational tension to extreme peaks which are capable of convincing the player
that quitting is the most moral option left. Ultimately, I critically analyse these
instances in Spec Ops: The Line under the consideration of metamodern aesthetics
as proposed by Timotheus Vermeulen and Robin van den Akker, who describe
contemporary social, cultural and artistic developments as oscillating between the
modern and the postmodern. Thereby, I seek to demonstrate that the strong reliance
on cognitive dissonance in this game represents a metamodern state of mind.
Key Words: Cognitive dissonance, ethics, metamodernism, psychology, shooter,

Spec Ops: The Line, video game.
*****
1. Introduction
Video games of all genres are capable of delivering impactful moral lessons.
José Zagal describes them as the ‘perfect test-bed for helping people learning about
ethics and ethical reasoning’1 and names certain strategies that video games apply
in order to challenge the player’s critical thinking. For instance, they can
encode an ethical system and require the player to learn it and

follow it in order to succeed. Sometimes, games may present
players with dilemmas or situations in which their understanding
of the ethical system is challenged. For example, by creating
moral tension between the player’s goals and those posed by
both the narrative and the gameplay.2
52 Cognitive Dissonance as an Ethical Instrument of Metamodern Aesthetic
__________________________________________________________________
The archetypical dilemma-situation, however, is merely the tip of the iceberg.
Yager Entertainment’s third-person shooter Spec Ops: The Line (henceforth
referred to as Spec Ops) is a rewarding object of analysis to explore how video
games can tackle moral topics in even more innovative ways. Instead of merely
confronting the players with difficult choices, it also challenges them by keeping
up a constant, uncomfortable opposition of ethics and entertainment.
In the following, I pursue a psychological approach to elaborate how Spec Ops
provokes mental discomfort and thus induces critical moral reflection.3 In this way,
I discuss two aspects: How such a tension arises according to Leon Festinger’s
theory of cognitive dissonance and how it can be converted into an ethical
instrument in video game design. Afterwards, I examine three features which
create a tension between entertainment and ethical reflection in Spec Ops: the
gameplay mechanics, the usage of loading screen messages, and, finally, the
ethical dilemma of the game’s eighth chapter titled The Gate. My intent is to
portray a cascade of effect with these examples: the gameplay sets a foundational
tension, the loading screen messages further emphasize it, and key passages such
as The Gate bring dissonance to its greatest effect. Indeed, Spec Ops’ usage of
cognitive dissonance has been widely discussed already, for example by Jeremy
Hannaford.4 Moreover, I explore the importance of Spec Ops’ reliance on cognitive
dissonance even further by proposing a link between its ethical design and
contemporary social, cultural, and aesthetic developments. Seeing how the video
game applies tension between oppositional concepts is reminiscent of
metamodernism, which can be ‘characterized by the oscillation between a typically
modern commitment and a markedly postmodern detachment.’5 On closer
examination, it turns out that the cognitive dissonance a player experiences due to
ethical contradictions is, in fact, based on the interplay of modern and postmodern
phenomena.
2. Cognitive Dissonance in Ethical Video Game Design

The human mind according to Festinger always strives for a harmonious
equilibrium.6 It aims to keep its cognitions – mental elements such as ideas, beliefs,
or knowledge – in consonance, i.e. free of contradiction. If a person has to handle
opposing cognitions, a ‘psychologically uncomfortable’7 feeling of dissonance
arises. Due to this unpleasant effect, Festinger attests a motivational quality to it:
the mind will seek ways to reduce tension when experiencing cognitive dissonance,
which can, for example, happen by favouring one cognition over another one.
Think of a person cheating on his or her diet plan: He or she may argue that a little
debauchery is acceptable after a long period of strict fasting, or that the slip up can
be made up for by eating even less the next day. The strength of the immediate
urge to reduce cognitive dissonance is dictated by its magnitude.8 The more a
person feels uncomfortable due to the processing of conflicting ideas, the greater
his or her motivation to reduce the tension will be. While a person may intend to
Felix Schniz 53
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solve his or her mental tensions, there are factors that generate a resistance against
the solution of dissonance.9 These factors include the fact that a change of action
may be perceived as loss, that current behaviour is regarded as pleasurable even
though other cognitions speak against it, or that change may simply not be possible
in a current situation. The latter one is particularly interesting with regards to video
games. While a player generally has a certain freedom of choice, it is always
restricted by the video game’s non-negotiable rules and mechanics. As a matter of
fact, imposing moral values which contradict those of the player is an effective
strategy for ethical video game design. In his book The Ethics of Computer Games,
Miguel Sicart describes such a design method and refers to as mirroring:
Designing with mirror ethics means forcing the player to go

through an ethical experience similar to the one the game object
encourages. It takes into account the player’s ethical being, but it
limits it with creative goals. These games become an exploration
of the ethical boundaries and capabilities for expression of the
players.10
The intent of such a method is to force the player into an ethical framework
‘that can be uncomfortable’11 or, to apply Festinger’s terminology, to create
cognitive dissonance. The latter invites the player to explore and understand both
the ethics of the game at hand as well as his or her own moral behaviour. Seeing
how one must succumb to the set of rules in order to continue playing, i.e. how one
is forced to handle a constant array of disharmonious cognitions, can be the
foundation for interesting experiences in video games.
3. The Moral Lessons of Spec Ops

Spec Ops makes use of mirroring in various ways. The gameplay, for example,
follows the conventions of current third-person shooters rigorously and without
innovation. The player controls protagonist Walker through a rescue mission set in
a post-apocalyptic Dubai which not only appears to be a generic military shooter
visually, but is also built on the generic shooter mechanics of dealing damage to
enemy troops to eliminate them and to enter their space.12 Other gameplay features
include a cover-based mechanic built around waist-high objects, brief vehicle
sequences, or simple commands one can give to Walker’s teammates Adams and
Lugo: typical gimmicks and tropes that have been used countless times in other
big-budget titles such as Gears of War, Army of Two, or Kane and Lynch: Dead
Men. Exactly this mundane design, however, serves as a constant factor of
dissonance. Shooters aim to create a flow experience, as Maria Konnikova
suggests in reliance to Mihály Csikszentmihályi.13 This means that they give the
player ‘the kind of feeling after which one nostalgically says: “that was fun,” or
“that was enjoyable.”’14 They are not necessarily played because they are violent,
__________________________________________________________________
but because they offer visual and haptic sensations as well as other stimulating
qualities, ‘which may result in a transcendence of ego-boundaries and consequent
psychic integration with metapersonal systems’15 and, thereby, create an
experience of pleasantly immersive entertainment. In case of Spec Ops, however, a
lack of strikingly innovative and therefore entertaining features subtracts from the
flow experience. In fact, it underlines the senseless acts of violence one commits as
a player. Reviewer Milan Koerner-Safrata describes from his player-experience
that it appears as if ‘Yager Development intentionally made the combat
unsatisfying, the action ridiculous, and the gameplay repetitive’,16 which creates an
uncomfortable dissonance. ‘If the gameplay is good, shooting can be incredibly
engaging’17 and conceal the actual acts of brutality they demand from the player. In
the case of Spec Ops, however, the bland engagement of rudimentary mechanics
emphasizes the fact that violence is the only given tool to progress in the game.18
Continuing to play like Koerner-Safrata, who ‘decided to become complicit so that
the narrative would run its course’19 and, thus, kept shooting for the sake of the
game despite feeling wrong about it, generates a constant layer of dissonance.
In contrast to the rather subliminal discomfort created by the gameplay, the
loading screens of Spec Ops actively provoke cognitive dissonance. Generally
speaking, loading screens appear when the software must load new data before the
game can progress. Nevertheless, they are intended to keep a player’s attention,
often by supplying additional narrative bits or by giving advice.20 At first, Spec
Ops appears to follow these conventions. Its loading screens contain short text
messages at the bottom, such as ‘Crouch or take cover to steady your aim with a
sniper rifle’ which help the player to improve his or her performance. The further
the player progresses, however, the more Spec Ops derails from these conventions
and takes the player by surprise with messages consisting of critical moral
feedback. ‘If you were a better person, you wouldn’t be here’21 states one loading
screen, referring directly to the progress of the game as such: the player has only
made it this far because he or she has shot countless human beings. Another one
asks ‘Do you feel like a hero yet?’22, which takes a similarly provocative stance
towards the player’s supposed motivation. Is this the experience you wanted to
have? If not, what did you expect from a game about war? In an almost cynical
move, one loading screen even explains cognitive dissonance – way after it has
initially forced the experience upon its players.23 With these messages, the game
reinforces the uncomfortable gameplay experience of a shooting gallery already
rendered blank and joyless by reminding the player that he or she is still an
accomplice of the game’s unethical demands.
The highest magnitude of dissonance is created in certain key passages of Spec
Ops, such as its chapter The Gate. Here, the player must pass a checkpoint that is
highly guarded by enemy troops. Upon scouting the area from higher ground, the
player finds a white phosphorous launcher. White phosphorus is a horrible weapon
that ‘will quickly burn through clothing and skin, causing painful burn injuries that
Felix Schniz 55
__________________________________________________________________
do not heal quickly.’24 Progress, however, is only possible by using the white
phosphorus launcher. Once deciding to use it, the player enters a small black-and-
white screen similar to the drone footage seen on the news. Keogh has already
remarked on the reminiscence of the scene to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare,
which features a similar moment, and Spec Ops’ subversive turn on this situation.25
The scene detaches the player from the actual combat going on. However, whereas
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare gives power into the hands of the player to save
the day and feel like a blockbuster action hero, Spec Ops confronts the player with
a panorama of the horrible aftermath. After the chemical strike, the player traverses
through the burnt-down scenery and has to endure enemy soldiers lying on the
ground, twitching in pain, not attacking, but raising their hands as if to beg for
mercy. The player finally arrives at a shelter for a large group of civilians, among
them women and children, which he or she has just sacrificed to progress in the
game. The shocking tone of The Gate, a peak moment in the player’s continuous
complicity as a mass murderer, raises high pressure to reduce dissonance – a
pressure strong enough to enforce an immediate change in player behaviour. As the
atrocity cannot be evaded within the provided virtual world, players in test
audiences relied on escaping it as a last resort and stopped playing Spec Ops after
experiencing the extreme mirroring ethics of The Gate.26
This strong effect can be furthermore accredited to the fact that it emphasizes
the interlocking of two contrasting foci of tension: the dissonance experienced by
the player and the dissonance experienced by the player-character Walker. The
player is torn between the cognitions of wanting to be entertained and feeling
morally repulsed. These cognitions coincide with the motivations of Walker: he
ought to complete his mission (which equals a continuation of the game /
entertainment for the player) and does not want to commit an atrocity, assuming
that a soldier of his rank is aware of the havoc that using white phosphorus entails.
Depending on the choice a player makes, however, these cognitions are resolved
differently between protagonist and player. Not committing violence, i.e. stopping
to play the game, means that the player has resolved dissonance in favour of ethical
behaviour, but Walker has failed. If one uses the white phosphorus, Walker may
have solved the dissonance in favour of his goal but the player has forsaken ethical
behaviour as an accomplice of the game’s demands.
4. Ethics in Metamodern Oscillation

The previous chapter shows that the reliance on tension between polar notions
is a driving factor behind Spec Ops’ ethical design. Now, I am going to explain
how this design choice is comparable to the tone of many contemporary socio-
cultural projects in art, architecture, and other fields which rely on mediation
between modern and postmodern notions in their expression. This current stream
of artistic development has been labelled metamodernism. Two of its main
advocates, Timotheus Vermeulen and Robin van den Akker, describe that it
__________________________________________________________________
oscillates between a modern enthusiasm and a postmodern irony,
between hope and melancholy, between naïveté and
knowingness, empathy and apathy, unity and plurality, totality
and fragmentation, purity and ambiguity. Indeed, by oscillating
to and fro or back and forth, the metamodern negotiates between
the modern and the postmodern. 27
The emphasis is set on oscillation. Metamodernism is not a harmonious liminal

state between oppositions. Rather, it can be compared to a pendulum that, once it
has reached one extreme, swings back again.28
The ethics of Spec Ops align with these core principles of metamodernism.
Firstly, the dissonant cognitions which shape its mirroring design – the
contemplation of morality and the general understanding of video games as a
matter of entertainment – can be aligned to core modernist and postmodernist
thoughts, respectively. Modernism represents the pursuit of moral understanding in
this allegory. Its notions are considering the epistemological.29 Modernist writing,
for instance, ‘can guide the reader through a treacherous minefield of moral
dilemmas in order that they might learn.’30 This entails the self-driven desire for
knowledge and reflection. Postmodernism, on the other hand, can be associated
with the ‘spectacle as a nihilistic, empty, aesthetic form.’31 Postmodern takes on
violence, for instance, are over-the-top spectacles comparable to the flow
experience that many fast-paced shooter games aim to provide. Secondly, the
cognitive dissonance in Spec Ops also captures the metamodern undulation.
Shooting an enemy may be a glorified and hyperviolent act, for instance, but it
takes the player to a level of moral contemplation when it feels unsatisfying, as is
provoked by Spec Ops’ bland gameplay. The player can opt to ignore this
fundamental conflict and continuously try to enjoy the game’s empty, violent flow,
but design elements such as the loading screen messages remind the player of the
moral neglect that this choice entails. Ignoring the dissonance is an undertaking of
increasing difficulty, considering that The Gate, for instance, takes the mediation
between morality and violent entertainment to extremes – not only due to its
generally overwhelming tone, but also due to the emphasised dialectic crossover in
dissonance between player and player character. To continue after the massacre, it
can be argued, is a moral choice for the dutiful Walker who must find out what has
happened in Dubai, but likewise dooms the player to continue the violent
complicity. Giving up, meanwhile, is the morally superior option to take for the
player, but it forces Walker to submit to the nihilistic acts of violence that he
committed so far. Here, meaningless violence and moral truth are constantly cross
referring to one another in a dissonance that cannot be solved easily. Thus, it keeps
the player’s mind in a constant back-and-forth between superficial entertainment
and reflection, one’s own morale and that of Walker, modern and postmodern
notions.
Felix Schniz 57
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5. Conclusion
Many reviewers, such as Tom Bissell, have questioned the meaning of the
video game’s subtitle The Line. He arrives at the conclusion that it refers to the
common idiom of crossing a line between right and wrong.32 With the foregoing
analysis, I expand the dimension of this metaphor and likewise aim to open a
discussion about ethical design in video games in the wake of a greater socio-
cultural context. As Zagal suggests, the full potential of video games and their
mechanisms that encourage ethical thinking is one ‘that we have yet to fully
explore.’33 Spec Ops is a great example of how video games can approach ethics in
new and innovative ways. A moral lesson is not always taught in the shape of an
either-or question. It can also unfold along a pendular movement between two
desired, yet mutually exclusive, positions. The line a player moves along
throughout the game is a shaky membrane between violence for the supposed sake
of entertainment and moral contemplation, and the cognitive dissonance
responsible for this balancing act arises from the thought-provoking appliance of
metamodern aesthetic. Ultimately, this allows us to understand Spec Ops’ take on
ethics as an expression of ‘the dominant cultural logic of contemporary
modernity’,34 a back-and-forth between a modern commitment to moral
understanding and a postmodern enjoyment of an otherwise empty spectacle.35
Notes
1
José P. Zagal, ‘Ethically Notable Videogames: Moral Dilemmas and Gameplay’
(paper presented at the Digital Interactive Games Research Association
Conference, London UK, September 1–4, 2009), 8, Viewed on 19 June 2015,
http://www.digra.org/wp-content/uploads/digital-library/09287.13336.pdf.
2
Ibid.
3
Besides the examples discussed here, Spec Ops deals with moral dilemmas in a
great variety of ways. They range from intelligible homages to Joseph Conrad’s
Heart of Darkness (London: Penguin, 2007) and Francis Coppola’s Apocalypse
Now (New York: Miramax, 2001) to takes at real-life political issues of military
intervention and excessively subversive approaches to military shooter
conventions, as remarked in reference to Brendan Keogh (who furthermore
provides an excellent approach to the video game in Killing is Harmless: A Critical
Reading of Spec Ops: The Line (Marden: Stolen Projects, 2013)). Discussing all
these topics in adequate detail, however, would outstretch the focus of this chapter
by far.
4
Jeremy Hannaford, ‘Cognitive Dissonance in Video Games – Spec Ops: The
Line’, Youtube, 07 January 2015, Viewed on 19 June 2015,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahOWbixhr2U.
5
Timotheus Vermeulen and Robin van den Akker, ‘Notes on Metamodernism’,
Journal of Aesthetics & Culture 2 (2010), 2, Viewed on 19 June 2015,
__________________________________________________________________
http://www.aestheticsandculture.net/index.php/jac/article/view/5677/6304.
6
Leon Festinger, A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance (Stanford: Stanford University
Press, 1968), 1.
7
Festinger, Cognitive Dissonance, 3.
8
Ibid., 16-18.
9
Ibid., 24-28.
10
Miguel Sicart, The Ethics of Computer Games (Cambridge: Massachusetts
Institute of Technology Press, 2009), 217.
11
Sicart, Ethics of Computer Games, 216.
12
Matthias Bopp, Rolf Nohr and Sascha Wiemer, ‘Shooter. Eine Einleitung’,
Shooter. Eine Multidisziplinäre Einführung, eds. Matthias Bopp, Rolf F. Nohr and
Serjoscha Wiemer (Münster: Lit, 2009), 7.
13
Maria Konnikova, ‘Why Gamers Can’t Stop Playing First-Person Shooters’, The
New Yorker, 25 November 2013, Viewed on 19 June 2015,
http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/why-gamers-cant-stop-playing-first-
person-shooters.
14
Mihály Csikszentmihályi, ‘Play and Intrinsic Rewards’, Journal of Humanistic
Psychology 15.3 (Summer 1975): 43.
15
Csikszentmihályi, ‘Play and Intrinsic Rewards’, 41.
16
Milan Koerner-Safrata, ‘Self-Aware Game’, The College Hill Independent, 18
March 2013, Viewed 19 June 2015,
http://students.brown.edu/College_Hill_Independent/?p=8190.
17
Ibid.
18
Ibid.
19
Ibid.
20
Colin Campbell, ‘A Secret Slice of Loading Screen History’, Polygon, 13
January 2011, Viewed on 19 June 2015,
http://www.polygon.com/2015/1/13/7540047/a-secret-slice-of-loading-screen-
history.
21
Spec Ops: The Line, Yager Entertainment.
22
Ibid.
23
One loading screen reads ‘Cognitive dissonance is an uncomfortable feeling
caused by holding two conflicting ideas simultaneously’.
24
I.J. MacLeod and A.P.V. Rogers, ‘The Use of White Phosphorus and the Law of
War’, Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law 10 (2007): 77.
25
Brendan Keogh, ‘Spec Ops: The Line’s Conventional Subversion of the Military
Shooter’ (paper presented at the Digital Interactive Games Research Association
Conference, Atlanta, Georgia, August 26–29, 2013), Viewed on 19 June 2015, 5-7,
http://www.digra.org/wp-content/uploads/digital-library/paper_55.pdf.
26
Walt Williams, interviewed by Russ Pitts, ‘Don't Be a Hero – The Full Story
behind Spec Ops: The Line’, Polygon, 27 August 2012, Viewed on 19 July 2015,
Felix Schniz 59
__________________________________________________________________
http://www.polygon.com/2012/11/14/3590430/dont-be-a-hero-the-full-story-
behind-spec-ops-the-line.
27
Timotheus Vermeulen and Robin van den Akker, ‘Notes on Metamodernism’,
5-6.
28
Ibid.
29
Brian McHale, Postmodernist Fiction (New York: Methuen, 1987), 9.
30
Martin Halliwell, Modernism and Morality: Ethical Devices in European and
American Fiction (New York: Palgrave, 2001), 6.
31
Catherine Constable, ‘Postmodernism and Film’, The Cambridge Companion to
Postmodernism, ed. Steven Connor (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2009), 53.
32
Tom Bissel, ‘Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Shooter’, Grantland, 12 July 2012,
Viewed 19 June 2015,
http://grantland.com/features/line-explores-reasons-why-play-shooter-games/.
33
Zagal, ‘Ethically Notable Videogames’, 8.
34
Timotheus Vermeulen et al., ‘What Is Metamodernism?’, Notes on
Metamodernism, 15 July 2010, Viewed on 19 June 2015,
http://www.metamodernism.com/2010/07/15/what-is-metamodernism/.
35
My sincere thanks go to Carrie Khou, Ina-Lotte Dühring, Johannes Fehrle, and
Kristin Aulich, who helped me to turn my thoughts into a sightly academic paper.
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Koerner-Safrata, Milan. ‘Self-Aware Game’. The College Hill Independent, 18

March, 2013. Viewed on 19 June 2015.
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Felix Schniz 61
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MacLeod, I. J. and A. P. V. Rogers. ‘The Use of White Phosphorus and the Law of
War’. Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law 10 (2007): 75-97.
McHale, Brian. Postmodernist Fiction. New York: Methuen, 1987.
Sicart, Miguel. The Ethics of Computer Games. Cambridge: Massachusetts

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Felix Schniz holds an M.A. in Transformation of Culture in Modern Age:

Literature on Media. In his PhD project at the University of Mannheim, he
develops analytical approaches for video games.
When All You Can Be Is about Who You Already Are: Dragon
Age: Inquisition and the Uncovering of Real-Life Behaviour
Patterns
Shauna Ashley Bennis

Abstract
As a result of the constant advance of videogame technology, contemporary game
designers have ever increasing possibilities when it comes to the creation of virtual
worlds and identities. Taking the expanding potential of recent technology
developments into account, the medium has the power to purposefully involve its
players in complex discussions on issues of culture, religion and identity. Using
BioWare’s recent RPG release, Dragon Age: Inquisition1 (short DA:I) as an
example, I will focus on how the underlying structure and script of the game can
make a player aware of and reflect upon real life behavioural patterns. While the
game seems to be divided into linear notions of good and evil, it soon reveals much
more subtle and ambiguous mechanisms. These can challenge the player on
multiple levels, such as issues of leadership, relationships, (sexual) identity, and
the emotions that drive decision-making. For this chapter, I will focus on Tynan
Sylvester’s book Designing Games: A Guide to Engineering Experiences2 and his
‘conceptual chain’ of creating experiences. Virtual environments within
contemporary games have become increasingly more immersive and present
receptive players with an unprecedented platform for emotional growth and
personal development. Thus, even though RPGs such as DA:I enable the players to
be whomever they choose to be, it is more likely that they reflect (unconscious)
patterns of whom they already are on a personal and behavioural level.
Key Words: BioWare, Dragon Age: Inquisition, experiences, player interaction,

player agency, approval system, player reflection.
*****
1. Introduction
As the speed in which contemporary technology advances is ever increasing, an
ironic development has taken place in games: The more technology moves
forward, the more it is possible that the mechanical and narrative quality of a game
suffers. This can be partially explained by the fact that game developers do not
have enough time to truly master the possibilities that new technologies may offer
them, which results in a game turning into a mere ‘technological demo’ of what is
achievable at any given time.3 In contrast, should a game utilise technological
possibilities to their maximum as well as intelligent game design, they may ‘unlock
interactions and situations that couldn’t have been experienced before’.4
Consequently, taking the expanding potential of recent technological developments
64 When All You Can Be Is about Who You Already Are
__________________________________________________________________
into account, the medium has the power to purposefully involve its players in
complex discussions on issues of culture, religion and identity. It is this basing of
games on complex abstract concepts, which ‘could indeed provide deep insights
into life and the human condition and produce lasting, deeply moving, and
profoundly thought-provoking experiences’.5 Thus, even though RPGs at such an
advanced technological level as DA:I might create the space for players to explore
whomever they want to be as it has never been possible before, it is just as likely
that the gaming experience functions as a catalyst for personal reflection upon
behaviour in primary reality.
For this chapter, I will use Tynan Sylvester’s book Designing Games: A Guide
to Engineering Experiences as an integral reference point, and will map the
findings of my personal research-play of BioWare’s recent single player role
playing game (RPG), Dragon Age: Inquisition (DA:I), onto his ‘conceptual chain’6
of game design. This is a three step process of how developers can create
experiences in games, which ‘neither [guarantees] meaningful expression nor
meaningful persuasion, but [...] sets the stage for both’.7
2. The Creation of Experience and Why It Matters

As described before, the goal of a well-designed game is the ‘combination of
perfect mechanics and compelling fiction into one seamless system of meaning’.8
The basis of Sylvester’s ‘conceptual chain’ to create experiences, as for any game,
is the mechanics. These constitute the underlying rules within which a particular
game can be played and must be consistent and comprehensible, in order to
increase immersion and evoke emotions in the player.9 These pre-scripted
mechanical responses to a player’s in-game actions (such as the pressing of
different buttons) constitute the ‘basic element of a game’s “nature”’,10 and define
its behaviour throughout the game. However, even though mechanics seem to be
limited to a fixed ‘artificial system of rules’,11 they are designed in such a way that
a player can interact with them to create unique events, which ‘will never play out
exactly that way ever again’.12 As opposed to other forms of entertainment, the
events in games are not as scripted and allow the players to participate in
individual experience creation. These events, which are created by game
mechanics and player interaction, allow the players to participate in individual
experience creation. Any game is in fact a long series of chain linked events, which
can be as simple as they can be complex, and can potentially evoke meaningful
emotions.
In addition to more obvious and extreme emotions such as anger and joy,
events can stimulate more subtle emotions that the conscious mind of a player
often does not pick up on. According to Sylvester, it is the ultimate designer skill
to be able to detect and understand these fine emotions and convert them into
games that make the player ‘feel something’.13 Furthermore, in order for a game to
have an emotional impact on a player, and thus function as a catalyst for personal
Shauna Ashley Bennis 65
__________________________________________________________________
insight, it has to facilitate the player’s entrance into a state of ‘flow’. Created
mostly through game mechanics that need to be in accordance with the player’s
skill level, flow is a state in which a player refocuses their attention away from the
primary reality they inhabit, and instead projects it into the secondary reality of the
game.14 Transporting a player’s mind into a state of flow ‘peels away the player’s
selfconsciousness [sic], erases his awareness of the real world, and creates a basic
state of physiological arousal’.15 Even though other game related occurrences
factor into this as well, it is mostly this foundation of emotion-driving mechanics
which draws the players to identify intimately with their character and the world.
3. Experiences through Mechanics Wrapped in Fiction

One such emotion-driving mechanic is the in-game ‘approval system’ or ‘NPC
feedback loop’, which creates a sense of group dynamic and interaction throughout
the game. However, because this happens on a deeply personal level and can be
experienced very differently, the following observations and analysis of the game
will be recounted from a researcher-participant point of view. Whenever there was
an impact heavy decision to make, or even when choosing a seemingly casual
remark during a conversation with an NPC, players are informed of how the other
party members relate to their verbal actions. From ‘strongly approves’ to ‘strongly
disagrees’, the game constantly reminded me that I am part of a large and diverse
group of ‘people’; people who have their own beliefs, values, opinions and
agendas. The ‘NPC feedback loop’ made it feel like actual people were relying on
me to ‘do the right thing’, and informed me diligently that there would be personal
consequences if I did not fulfil, or conform to, their interpretation of what, or who,
the ‘Herald of Andraste’ should be. Thus, in order to progress in the game and
secure the most suitable outcome for myself and the other party members, the
game design made it important to think ‘of others’ and the consequences of my
actions. It also created an environment in which social, cultural and peer pressure
could be enacted on me in a way that I had previously never experienced in games
before.
Working in combination with and as an enhancement of the ‘NPC feedback
loop’ are characters which inspire empathy. As a result of recent advancements in
neuroscience, scientists have discovered the existence of ‘mirror neurons’, which
are the basis for a biological explanation of empathy and how it is triggered in an
empathetic person’s brain.16 As defined by Nancy E. Snow, empathy is the
‘understanding that another is experiencing an emotion, and feeling an emotion
that is similar to what the other feels because the other feels it’.17 As humans we
are deeply empathetic creatures and often respond to even very subtle stimuli from
another person, which triggers a mirroring response. For example, we smile when
smiled at and flinch when we see someone in discomfort.18 Developers can use this
innate behaviour of a player and generate NPC character arcs, as well as complex
social interactions that are specifically designed to shift one or more human
__________________________________________________________________
values.19 Since we are naturally inclined to want to know more about our peers, in
this case NPCs, the way this arc is designed and communicated, can make the
information a player derives through the ‘NPC feedback loop’ more personally
relevant.20 Thus, by being purposefully and voluntarily involved in a world whose
sole purpose is to inspire deep emotional reactions and meaningful experiences
(communicated by beautiful and expressive visuals, sounds and interactions), the
feeling of being in contact with real and complex human beings can be
experienced.
4. Experiencing the World from Another Person’s Point of View

Games such as DA:I, which tackle abstract concepts such as empathy,
companionship and loyalty, have the potential to enable players to see the world
from another point of view, sometimes one very different from their own.21 A
noteworthy example of this would be the story revolving around NPC Dorian
Pavus, who turns out to be of homosexual orientation. As I do not oppose
homosexuality and same sex relationships, this intimate reveal did not stretch my
empathetic muscles. However, I have never experienced the struggles these people
can face in their own environments.
One way of experiencing this, and maybe walking a few steps in the shoes of
those who are concerned, was the companion quest ‘Last Resort of Good Men’.22
In this quest I, the Inquisitor, receive a letter from Dorian’s father, asking me to
arrange a meeting between him and his estranged son. Without being mentioned
before the meeting makes it apparent that the rift between the two men is Dorian’s
sexuality, as well as his choice to live away from the restrictions his father and
bloodline impose on him. I can either support his wish to live according to his own
terms, or his father’s reasoning that he only wanted what was best for him. As a
consequence, Dorian and his father may reconcile, or stay estranged. Regardless of
the specific result of this quest, a thematically uninvolved player may have become
aware of and confronted with the deep emotions of abandonment, estrangement,
betrayal, disappointment and anger (amongst other emotions) a homosexual person
may experience for the first time. Or, they could be confronted with their own
issues with the topic of sexuality in primary reality, as can be exemplified by
‘3sgtejeff’’s comment:
‘Not realistic enough bioware...in the next DA we need ONLY

male options and then if we try to romance a woman, we get
called out for being sexist and discriminatory...seriously...stop
pushing gay sex on me’.23
To quote Marcus Schulzke, ‘it is strength of games that they make players
come into contact with other people's moral judgments’.24 Furthermore, the fact
that the player is forced to take a stand as an active actor-participant, one of many
__________________________________________________________________
situations in DA:I, only makes the game more valuable on an emotional level. In
the following segment, I will present two personal examples of how deep
emotional involvement and empathic interaction can lead to meaningful reflections
on real life behaviour, and even action.
5. Solas and Insurmountable Differences

As described before, what influenced my in-game decisions and real life
reflections the most, was the ‘NPC feedback loop’; in particular, how it established
a sense of being embedded in a social context, in which actions, decisions and
opinions had a direct impact on my relationships with NPCs. In this context,
sometimes it is possible that we want somebody to like us, even though we are not
naturally compatible and the interpersonal relationship would require a lot of one-
sided compromising. For me, one such instance was the romance plot with the elf
Solas who is very specific in what he wants to hear in order to be romantically
available. To successfully romance him, it is advised to always see things as he
does, and to refrain from having absolute opinions.25 If one wants to pursue a
deeper (non-)romantic relationship with Solas, it is necessary to literally ‘suck up’
to him and support what he says in awe and without opposition. Being only one of
eight romance options in the game, it had so many ‘dos and don’ts’ attached that it
triggered me to reflect. At some point I realised how much I had started skewing
my own views and opinions, in order to impress someone who was not compatible
with me.
This thought stuck with me for a long time and had me investigate how I tried
to please other NPCs by monitoring and censoring my own decisions.
Unconsciously, before making a choice I had started asking myself ‘what would
xyz want me to say?’ During the entire game the player is confronted with
opposing views and personal needs, and it is not possible to make all NPCs happy.
This is even more true for real life, in which interactions with humans are more
complex and diverse than with the excellently designed, yet limited, NPCs of
DA:I. While playing the game I thought about my own life and how often I had
refrained from speaking my personal truth, in order to please people who only
tolerated me as long as I admired them and thought along the lines of what they
told me I should think. Realising this, with a pang of discomfort, I practiced
making decisions based on what I felt was right and not based on the opinions of
others, and only interacted with the NPCs who still liked me. The game also made
me consider my real life interactions more closely, and instilled the desire within
me to filter out all the ‘Solas Relationships’ I was leading with real people.
Needless to say, Solas and I broke up due to insurmountable differences. This also
happened with a real-life ‘friend’.
__________________________________________________________________
6. Sera and the Fear of Conflict
Another experience that made me very aware of real-life behaviour that was no
longer serving me was the relationship with Sera. A rogue female elf re-enacting
the theme of ‘Robin Hood’, Sera was one of the characters I felt most excited about
when she appeared in the game. However, this very quickly shifted to feelings of
annoyance and intense dislike. Sera’s constant cynicism, vulgarity, low emotional
intelligence and impulsive behaviour, made me literally hate her. Nevertheless,
instead of reacting with natural consequences such as removing her from the group
or ignoring her, two things happened: 1) I tried to be ‘nice’ to her, and 2) I
questioned my (negative) feelings and felt that I was being the problem. Instead of
trusting my feelings of dislike, I started researching online for reasons to keep her,
in case I was being unfair, or from fear that I would end up missing something in
the game. I tried to use logical reasoning to explain why I did not want to let her
go, but ‘logic is only part of the process of choosing. The other part—and often
this is the largest part—is driven by emotion’.26
There is a saying that you cannot say the wrong thing to the right person, and
that you cannot say the right thing to the wrong person. My relationship with Sera
was a reflection of this and how such a situation can play out in real-life toxic
relationships. Annoyed by her abusive behaviour towards my attempts at being
‘nice’ I decided to trust my own instincts and remove her from the group. In the
game, and in real life, it is essential to have a supportive environment built on
respect, trust and honesty, in order to function at your highest potential. This does
not always mean that I need to be agreed with, or that I cannot be confronted with,
or grow from, opposing standpoints. Nevertheless, there is a difference between
constructive, healthy relationships that do this, and dysfunctional, toxic
relationships. Consequently, even though ‘NPCs [supposedly] cannot communicate
in the same playful way as humans’,27 the negatively charged interaction with Sera
triggered me on a very personal level and made me realise: I do not have to find
justifications to keep people who treat me badly in my life, or ‘make it work’ with
them; not even when everyone else thinks that they are hilarious.
7. Conclusion
In hindsight, playing DA: I was probably one of the most immersive and
intense interactions I have had with a game so far. Particularly the social
interaction with the highly rendered, nuanced and complex characters (both in
visual representation and scripted identity), proved to be the most rewarding
element of the game. Furthermore, the emphasis on agency and control managed to
instil a sense of relevance and ownership within me,28 and enabled the revelation of
personal real-life behavioural patterns. DA:I provides a receptive player with a
large world of possible experiences and interactions, which can be entertaining,
educational or both. Due to its realistic depiction of people and social (as well as
political) interaction, the game invited me to explore whomever I possibly could
__________________________________________________________________
be, while creating an expansive platform that could reflect aspects of who I already
was. Even though I wanted to be a fearless elf with humble, yet courageous
leadership skills, which the game allowed, it also mirrored other things: I do not
like conflict, and I tend to submit to people who try to engraft their authority onto
me, by trying to please them; even at the cost of my own wellbeing and values.
The game did not set out to ‘teach’ me these insights specifically; however, it
did confront me with many situations that could trigger a learning experience.
Thus, depending on the player’s receptiveness, education, experiences etc., DA:I
provides not only a platform to explore whom players fantasise about being, but to
think about the person they already are. Playing DA:I is a non-specific learning
experience based on the fact that players ‘are not identical and will not respond to
inputs in the same way [and] each person draws on a unique network of mental
associations’.29 This is possible due to contemporary mechanics and the attempt of
some developers to transcend stereotypical representations and restrictive
narratives, so as to offer a choice and consequence heavy, complex and socially
interactive world. It is this process that creates unique experiences that, as
mundane and small as they can be, have the power to ‘change our lives because
something suddenly falls into place, makes sense and we learn something about
ourselves’.30
Notes
1
Bioware, Dragon Age: Inquisition. Toronto, CA: EA, 2014. Videogame.
2
Tynan Sylvester, Designing Games: A Guide to Engineering Experiences.
California: O’Reilly Media, 2013.
3
Ibid., 27-28.
4
Ibid., 28.
5
Doris Rusch and Matthew J. Weise, ‘Games about LOVE and TRUST?
Harnessing the Power of Metaphors for Experience Design’, ResearchGate (2008),
viewed 30 August 2015, Doi:10.1145/1401843.1401861, 5.
6
Sylvester, Designing Games, 44.
7
Ian Bogost, Persuasive Games: The Expressive Power of Videogames
(Cambridge: MIT Press, 2007), 45.
8
9
Ibid., 124.
10
Torill Elvira Mortensen, Perceiving Play: The Art and Study of Computer Games
(New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2009), 24.
11
12
Ibid., 8.
13
Ibid., 10.
14
Ibid., 42-43.
15
Ibid., 43.
__________________________________________________________________
16
Kathryn Pavlovich and Keiko Krahnke, ‘Empathy, Connectedness and
Organisation’, Journal of Business Ethics 105.1 (2012), viewed 14 June 2015,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/41413214.
17
Nancy E. Snow, ‘Empathy’, American Philosophical Quarterly 37.1 (2000): 68,
Viewed 14 June 2015,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/20009985?Search=yes&resultItemClick=true&searchT
ext=Empathy&searchUri=/action/doBasicSearch?Query=Empathy&acc=on&wc=o
n&fc=off&group=none&seq=5#page_scan_tab_contents.
18
19
Ibid., 13.
20
Ibid., 22.
21
Rusch, ‘Games about LOVE and TRUST?’, 5.
22
Decinis, ‘Last Resort of Good Men - Dragon Age: Inquisition (Dorian and
Aleck's First Kiss)’, YouTube, 2 December 2014, viewed 5 May 2015,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=js68Zlieov4.
23
3sgtefeff, 18 February 2015 (5 A.M.), comment on ‘Sex and Romance’, IGN,
viewed 01 September 2015,
http://www.ign.com/wikis/dragon-age-inquisition/Sex_and_Romance.
24
Marcus Schulzke, ‘Moral Decision Making in Fallout’, Game Studies: The
International Journal of Computer Game Research 9.2 (2009), viewed 14 June
2015, http://gamestudies.org/0902/articles/schulzke.
25
‘Sex and Romance’, IGN, 17 July 2015, viewed 14 June 2015,
26
27
Lisbeth Klastrup, ‘The Worldness of EverQuest: Exploring a 21st Century
Fiction’, Game Studies: The International Journal of Computer Game Research
9.1 (2009), viewed 14 June 2015, http://gamestudies.org/0901/articles/klastrup.
28
James Paul Gee, ‘Good Video Games and Good Learning’, SkatekidsTM, viewed
14 June 2015,
http://www.skatekidsonline.com/parents_teachers/Good_Video_Games_and_Good
_Learning_Updated.pdf.
29
Jonathan Frome, ‘Eight Ways Videogames Generate Emotion’, DiGRA '07 -
Proceedings of the 2007 DiGRA International Conference: Situated Play 4 (2007):
833, viewed 13 June 2015, http://www.digra.org/digital-library/publications/eight-
ways-videogames-generate-emotion/.
30
Rusch, ‘Games about LOVE and TRUST?’, 5.
__________________________________________________________________
Bibliography
Arnseth, Hans Christian. ‘Learning to Play or Playing to Learn - A Critical
Account of the Models of Communication Informing Educational Research on
Computer Gameplay’. Game Studies: The International Journal of Computer
Game Research 6.1 (2006): Viewed on 14 June 2015.
http://gamestudies.org/0601/articles/arnseth.
Bogost, Ian. Persuasive Games: The Expressive Power of Videogames. Cambridge:

MIT Press, 2007.
Decinis. ‘Last Resort of Good Men - Dragon Age: Inquisition (Dorian and Aleck's
First Kiss)’, Youtube, 2 December 2014. Viewed 14 June 2015.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=js68Zlieov4.
Frome, Jonathan. ‘Eight Ways Videogames Generate Emotion’. DiGRA '07 -

Proceedings of the 2007 DiGRA International Conference: Situated Play 4 (2007):
Viewed 13 June 2015. http://www.digra.org/digital-library/publications/eight-
ways-videogames-generate-emotion/.
Gee, James Paul. ‘Good Video Games and Good Learning’, SkatekidsTM. Viewed
14 June 2015.
http://www.skatekidsonline.com/parents_teachers/Good_Video_Games_and_Good
_Learning_Updated.pdf.
Klastrup, Lisbeth. ‘The Worldness of EverQuest: Exploring a 21st Century

Fiction’, Game Studies: The International Journal of Computer Game Research
9.1 (2009). Viewed 14 June 2015. http://gamestudies.org/0901/articles/klastrup.
Mortensen, Torill Elvira. Perceiving Play: The Art and Study of Computer Games.
New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2009.
Pavlovich, Kathryn and Keiko Krahnke. ‘Empathy, Connectedness and

Organisation’. Journal of Business Ethics 105.1 (2012). Viewed 14 June 2015.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/41413214.
Schulzke, Marcus. ‘Moral Decision Making in Fallout’. Game Studies: The

International Journal of Computer Game Research 9.2 (2009). Viewed 14 June
2015. http://gamestudies.org/0902/articles/schulzke.
__________________________________________________________________
Snow, Nancy E. ‘Empathy’. American Philosophical Quarterly 37.1 (2000): 65-78.

Viewed 14 June 2015.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/20009985?Search=yes&resultItemClick=true&searchT
ext=Empathy&searchUri=/action/doBasicSearch?Query=Empathy&acc=on&wc=o
n&fc=off&group=none&seq=5#page_scan_tab_contents.
Sylvester, Tynan. Designing Games: A Guide to Engineering Experiences.

California: O’Reilly Media, 2013.
‘Sex and Romance’. IGN. 17 July 2015. Viewed 14 June 2015.

Shauna A. Bennis, a passionate European with Irish roots, can currently be found
pursuing her Graduate Degree in ‘English and American Studies’ at the Alpen-
Adria University of Klagenfurt, Austria. Hereby her academic focus lies on
Gender- and Game studies, with a strong emphasis on issues of culture and ethics.
Designing the Peaceable Kingdom: The Canadian-Ness of
Dragon Age: Inquisition
René Schallegger
Abstract
‘A means to preserve, as well as an agent of change’, this is what the Inquisition in
BioWare’s most recent instalment of the Dragon Age series (2009 - 2014) is
supposed to be according to Cassandra, a ‘Seeker of Truth’. Doubt, the procedural,
a deeply collectivist spirit, and an obsession with order are at the heart of the logic
and politics of this game. Core concepts of Canadian Studies, such as the ‘garrison
mentality’ from Northrop Frye’s Bush Garden (1971) and Margaret Atwood’s
Survival (1972) are used to relate the socio-cultural discourses, identity politics,
ethics, and the representational regime of the game to the conceptual framework of
its creation. John Ralston Saul’s A Fair Country (2008) with its central notion of
the métis nation, and Linda Hutcheon’s understanding of a postmodernism defined
by both complicity with and critique of the dominant system defined in The
Politics of Postmodernism (1989) add the key concepts of ambiguity and hybridity
to this reading. No other mainstream studio has contributed more to the
development of the medium as a fully functional form of cultural expression in
recent years than BioWare, culminating in the first ever fully inclusive design in
the western tradition with Dragon Age: Inquisition (2014). Their games entertain
just as much as they enlighten and give us the opportunity to grow. Silently, but
nevertheless forcefully, they provide a reply to the violent clashes over the future
of videogames, and this choice of strategy is just another Canadian aspect to the
BioWare way.
Key Words: BioWare, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Canadian Studies, identity

politics, representation, Frye, Atwood, Saul, Hutcheon, postmodernism.
*****
1. Refusing the Yodelling Beefeater: Canadian Identity

Canada is a postcolonial society and a very young nation, not in terms of the
rapidly rising median age of its population,1 but the number of years since its full
political independence (1982). Sovereign Canada is younger than the median
Canadian, but it is futile to define a point where Canada started to be ‘itself’, or as
Adam Dodek put it: ‘As a country, Canada was born on July 1, 1867. As a society,
Canada existed for thousands of years, since the first indigenous people lived
together on this land’.2
Initially, Canada’s development was driven by the choices of others: the end of
Nouvelle France at the Battle on the Plains of Abraham (1759); the Thirteen
Colonies declaring independence and defining what remained loyal as British
74 Designing the Peaceable Kingdom
__________________________________________________________________
North America (1776); or Confederation in reaction to the US Civil War (1867).
After the UK twice pulled Canada into devastating wars, Canadians started
questioning their status as what Northrop Frye termed ‘practically the only country
left in the world which is a pure colony’.3 The gaze was first turned inwards, and
the Group of Seven (1920) established a Canadian way of representing landscape.
Later, Hugh MacLennan wrote his novel Two Solitudes (1945), dealing with the
precarious relationship between French and English Canadians. Until today, its title
stands as a metaphor for the two Founding Nations and how they remain two
distinct societies. The development of Canadian culture was kick-started by the
Massey Commission (1951): Chaired by Vincent Massey, it investigated Canada’s
dependence on the cultures of the US and the UK. Its two central recommendations
were (1) a strategy of centre-to-periphery dispersal of cultural institutions, and (2)
the installation of a federal body for the funding of cultural activities.4
Northrop Frye’s The Bush Garden (1971) is one of two seminal texts used as a
framework to understand Canadian culture, the other one being Margaret Atwood’s
Survival (1972). Even though both are English Canadians, they include the French
Canadian perspective as essential to Canadian culture: ‘Canada has two languages
and two literatures’, Frye writes, ‘and every statement made […] about “Canadian
literature” […] implies a parallel or contrasting statement about French-Canadian
literature’.5
Atwood defines survival as leitmotif for Canadian culture, resulting from the
internal threat of disintegration and the external struggle against two Empires, the
UK and the US.6 The Frontier is also present in the Canadian imagination, but
unlike its US-American counterpart it is not a ‘line of civilisation’ pushed
outwards. Frye explains:
In the Canadas, the frontier was all around one, a part and a
condition of one’s whole imaginative being [that] separated the
Canadian, physically or mentally, from Great Britain, from the
United States, and […] from other Canadian communities.7
These communities define their own distinctive values, and their members
show great respect for the law and order that hold them together.8 Frye concludes:
‘[S]uch communities are bound to develop what we may provisionally call a
garrison mentality’.9 The Canadian frontier thus pushes inwards, representing the
uncaring omnipotence of nature, disempowering human agents.
Even though the influence of two English-speaking Empires supports English
Canadians, it also threatens their ‘survival’. Canadian culture is neither British nor
US-American: ‘Canada’s identity is to be found in some via media, or via
mediocris, between the other two’, Frye claims.10 It is in constant tension between
two Empires, two Founding Nations, the individual and the collective. Constant re-
negotiation is required: ‘The tension between this political sense of unity and the
René Schallegger 75
__________________________________________________________________
imaginative sense of locality is the essence of whatever the word “Canadian”
means’.11
Atwood adds a focus on the role of Aboriginal Canadians, identifying
fundamental differences from US culture in representations of indigenous
populations: whereas there they are determined by ‘moral definitions based on
intrinsic qualities’, Canada paints a dynamic image of ‘the relative places of
Indians and whites on the aggression-suffering scale’.12 A cycle of victimisation is
established, bringing together Aboriginal Canadians, French Canadians, English
Canadians, and US-Americans.13 The Aboriginal population is the basis of
identification for both English and French Canadians, and the constant threat that
unites these three groups is seeping into Canada:
[T]hey’re still Americans, they’re what’s in store for us, what we

are turning into. They spread themselves like a virus, they get
into the brain and take over the cells […] and the ones that have
the disease can’t tell the difference.14
Aboriginality is key in John Ralston Saul’s A Fair Country (2008):
We are a métis civilization. What we are today has been inspired

as much by four centuries of life with the indigenous civilizations
as by four centuries of immigration. Perhaps more.15
Saul identifies Aboriginal elements in the collective Canadian imagination,

claiming: ‘our intuitions and common sense as a civilization are more Aboriginal
than European’.16 What defines Canadian cultural identity is ‘living comfortably
with diversity’, resulting in ‘a non-racial idea of civilization, and non-linear, even
non-rational’.17 The metaphor used is ‘an inclusive circle that expands and
gradually adapts as new people join us’.18 Empire is motivated by the fear of the
‘reality of racial impurity’, the alternative is ‘becoming something more complex,
an integral part of that other’.19 Canadian settlement was about fragile communities
dependent on Aboriginal Canadians for their survival. Canadians therefore entered
partnerships with the Aboriginal populations, following traditionally indigenous
ideas.20
Fairness and inclusion shape Canadian civilization, and this understanding ‘cuts
easily across what are often presented as dividing lines of Aboriginal and non-
Aboriginal, francophone and Anglophone, established and new citizens’.21 Social
cohesion in Canada is not static, it is about ‘maintaining the tension between
individuals and groups, between the national and the regional’, ‘between individual
and government action’.22 But it takes work:
__________________________________________________________________
The wisest and most effective method of dealing with cultural
differences is not to hide them but to show them. […] A
particular responsibility falls upon the ethno-cultural majority to
build relationships with immigrants.23
Saul demands ‘a non-governmental form of citizen engagement’.24 In a ‘non-

loyal space’, citizens become ‘a bulwark of the state’.25 Driven by an ‘ethical sense
of purpose’,26 they band together in order to ‘avoid the weight of government, the
short-term drive of the market and the passivity of charity’.27 This creates a
dynamic understanding of government and law that are expected to serve the ever-
changing needs of those governed, the Living Tree doctrine: ‘our Constitution is a
living tree which, by way of progressive interpretation, accommodates and
addresses the realities of modern life’.28
The need to work the system has made Canadians deeply aware of systemic
behaviour. In her Politics of Postmodernism (1989), Linda Hutcheon defines ‘my
own paradoxical postmodernism of complicity and critique, of reflexivity and
history, that at once inscribes and subverts the conventions and ideologies of the
dominant cultural and social forces’.29 It shapes Canada, a country that ‘rests on
paradoxes and anomalies, governed only by compromise and kept strong only by
moderation’.30 The Canadian Postmodern is about questioning cultural givens:
Solving the problem(s) would mean having answers, would mean

stasis and product; […] we are urged to ‘ing’ – to see that
reading and interpreting are processes in which we too
participate as, equally, makers of our culture.31
Although postmodernism is characterised by Lyotard’s ‘incredulity towards

metanarratives’,32 it cannot deny their power over the collective imagination.
Canada, as a postmodern civilisation, is the poster child of the self-aware play with
meaning and identity.
‘Canada-as-North’ is identified by Sherrill Grace as dominating the conceptual
imagination of Canadians.33 This North ‘is not natural, real, a geological or
meteorological matter’, rather it is ‘the creation […] of North as idea, or […] a
northern mentality’.34 Grace identifies Canada with North on an ontological level:
‘North, while it has certainly been naturalized as essential to Canada, is a human
construct, like Canada itself’.35 Not only is it diverse and pervasive, ‘North is
multiple, shifting and elastic. It is a process, not an external fixed goal or
condition’.36 She insists:
Instead of providing conclusions or neat answers to questions

about identity, I want to keep the process of being Canadian
open. I want this process of openness […], because that is how I
__________________________________________________________________
see Canada: as always changing, adapting, revising, revisiting its
histories; always contesting and redrawing cartographic and
cultural boundaries; as always, and productively, unfinished – a
work in progress.37
The Canada that ultimately emerges is a civilisation, a space, an identity that is

diverse, relational, procedural, propelled by a diffuse and dynamic teleology where
the becoming is what creates a sense of being. ‘Canada’s well-known failure to
embrace a single “identity” of the yodelling or Beefeater variety has come to seem
less like a failure than a deliberate and rather brave refusal’, Atwood comments.38
This is the socio-cultural context BioWare work in.
2. No-One Expects the Canadian Inquisition: Dragon Age: Inquisition

The studio was founded in 1995, and started making their own IPs with Jade
Empire (2005), followed by Mass Effect (2007), their first lasting game series.
From the start, they have pushed the limits of human relationships in videogames,
focusing on interpersonal relationship mechanics.39 The Dragon Age IP was started
in 2009. Until recently, David Gaider was lead writer of the trilogy of games so far
published: Dragon Age: Origins (2009), Dragon Age II (2011), and Dragon Age:
Inquisition (2014). He has also been at the forefront of BioWare’s battle for
diversity in the representational regimes of AAA videogames. When gamers
objected to a male character in Dragon Age II making advances towards their male
avatars, Gaider issued an open letter defending the content by pointing out its
optional nature and the need to adapt naturalised expectations to shifting player
demographics.40 For Mass Effect 3 (2012), BioWare created the first exclusively
gay and lesbian romantic options in western game design, and with Dragon Age:
Inquisition (2014) they delivered the first fully inclusive western videogame, with
a trans-male character who is represented in a respectful and differentiated way.
This inclusivity is part of the Canadian-ness of BioWare: Besides diversity in
gender and sexual identities, their games also include social, ethnic, racial, and
religious diversity, as well as strong representations of disabled persons. Dragon
Age: Inquisition is a milestone in the history of the medium, and its Canadian-ness
can be argued on three grounds: its setting, the function of the Inquisition, and its
idea of heroism.
A civil war between Mages and Templars ravages the continent of Thedas. To
make peace, Divine Justinia, head of the Chantry, calls together the leaders of both
camps, but the Conclave is attacked, and the Veil, the barrier between the spirit and
the physical world, is torn. The player avatar bears a mark that allows them to close
the rifts between the worlds, re-establishing the ‘meta-garrison’ protecting
humanity from the outside. An Inquisition is proclaimed, with the player avatar as
Inquisitor.
__________________________________________________________________
Thedas itself can be read as ‘Canada through the Looking-Glass’. It is divided
between the English-speaking Fereldans in the east and the French-speaking
Orlesians in the west. Here, it is the Orlesians who have achieved Empire, while
the colonised Fereldans fight for their cultural and political survival. There is also
another Empire in the game, north of the border, that threatens everyone with its
aggressive policies; The Tevinter Imperium once ruled the world unsurpassed, but
now its glory is fading. An oligarchy of ruthless mages educated in elite academies,
Tevinter was ‘built upon the bones of my people’, as the elf Solas explains.41 Elves
are the indigenous population of Thedas, nearly driven to extinction by aggressive
human settlement. They contribute the Aboriginal element to Thedas, with their
semi-nomadic life-style, animistic spirituality, their tradition of storytelling, their
petroglyphs and inuksuit.
The Inquisitor loses the first confrontation with Corypheus, the antagonist of
the game, and Solas guides the survivors to Skyhold, a fortress built far from
civilisation, resting on elven ruins. To get there, the refugees have to trek north,
and the landscapes they cross resemble the Canadian North and the Rockies. The
journey instils a sense of awe, a deep respect for unconquered and unconquerable
nature.42 This is not about Manifest Destiny, as the settlers are Atwood’s ‘Reluctant
Immigrants’,43 and the represented spaces breathe the terrible majesty Atwood
describes as ‘Nature the Monster’.44 These are not spaces humanity can understand,
as the witch Morrigan explains: ‘Mankind blunders through the world, crushing
what it does not understand’.45 This adds an undertone of ‘Nature the Threatened’
which Atwood identifies as a recent phenomenon in Canadian imagination.46
Skyhold itself is the garrison surrounded by hostile nature, its Great Hall the one
warm spark in a cold and empty land, bringing people together in an enclosed and
sheltered space. It is also ‘a place where the Inquisition can build, grow’,47 echoing
Canadian ideas of non-violent settlement and symbols of Canadian identity, such
as the beaver and the Living Tree. No-one seems to blame the Inquisitor for losing.
Quite the opposite, as a spirit explains: ‘Without fear and pain and failure, we
cannot learn, we cannot grow’.48 Atwood calls this acceptance of failure in
Canadian culture ‘Failed Sacrifices’.49 There is no Canadian Dream, Canada is
about survival.
Transcending physical survival, the Inquisition is created to help facilitate
cultural and social survival. It is not about persecuting dissidents, but an avatar of
the Living Tree doctrine: Based on an anti-revolutionary bias and the rule of law as
supreme principle in Canadian culture, it is formed by Holy Writ to question how
existing institutions have to adapt in order to reflect the changing needs of the
people. It is ‘a means to preserve, as well as an agent of change’,50 Cassandra, a
Seeker of Truth, elaborates, adding: ‘I want to respect tradition, but not fear
change. […] And I have no idea whether my wanting these things makes any of
them right’.51 In this world, truth can only be sought, never found. What remains is
viability. Constant, evolutionary change is advocated as the only long-time solution
__________________________________________________________________
to create a vibrant society. Tevinter’s fading is caused by a refusal to change.
Dorian, a Tevinter mage, ridicules how decisions are justified there: ‘Because
that’s how it’s always been done. Excellent reasoning’.52 Yet, even if institutions
change, they can fail. This Inquisition is a recreated one. When Josephine, chief-
diplomat of the New Inquisition, praises the Inquisition of Old, Cassandra retorts
that it lost its way and had to be recreated.53
Echoing the Canadian Constitution, characters in Dragon Age: Inquisition are
obsessed with ‘peace, order, and good government’.54 Their purpose is to stand
against chaos and restore order. Leliana declares that the Inquisition is about
‘restoring order in a world gone mad’, while Corypheus ‘is willing to tear this
world apart to reach the next’.55 However, Fundamentalism is opposed by the
Inquisitor: ‘All of this happened because of fanatics and arguments about the next
world. It is time we start believing in this one’.56 The Inquisition is not about
dogma, it is about finding workable solutions to the needs of its time, to guarantee
social stability in an ever-changing world. It is, however, not a republican
institution, but an elected monarchy, echoing Frye’s ‘quest for the peaceable
kingdom’: ‘the reconciliation of man with man and of man with nature’ that he
sees as driving force in the Canadian imagination.57 Unlike its revolutionary,
southern neighbour, Canada is a constitutional, parliamentary monarchy, yet it
requires engaged citizenship. The concept of participation and responsible action is
embodied in the Inquisitor whose motto is: ‘I am not chosen. I have chosen’.58 The
player avatar becomes the central figure not by Divine Providence but their
responsible engagement: ‘I did this myself, through my actions, no Maker
required’, and Josephine agrees: ‘You are a beacon of law, Inquisitor, as others
shirk from responsibility’.59 Rule of law and social contract are supreme principles.
Authority cannot be derived from nor responsibility transferred to metaphysical
sources, as this is a thoroughly humanistic world.
Even though the Inquisitor serves as focal point for the values expressed,
Dragon Age: Inquisition is not about the individual and its empowerment. Facing
Corypheus, the Inquisitor exclaims: ‘You expect us to surrender and kneel. We will
not. You will face us all, when we choose’.60 The Inquisitor is not a lonesome hero,
they are a porte-parole for a community of likeminded, engaged individuals. The
collective is the source of power and authority. Corypheus’s quest to achieve
godhood for himself even at the price of destroying the world expresses the
diametrically opposed worldview. Born in Tevinter, he cannot conceive of a
structure like the Inquisition. When he defeats the Inquisitor, he thinks the
Inquisition defeated, but as Cassandra reminds the player: ‘this is a victory of
alliance’.61
Victory itself is neither clear nor absolute, it has to remain open until
consequences allow for a judgment. ‘As to whether the war is holy, that depends
on what we discover’, Cassandra cautions the Inquisitor.62 Another piece of advice
comes from Mother Giselle, the Inquisitor’s spiritual advisor: ‘It’s all one world,
__________________________________________________________________
Herald. All that changes is our place in it’.63 Truth and victory are relative and
subjective. The individual is part of a bigger picture, lacking the ability to foresee
the consequences of its actions. At the end of the game, the Inquisitor and their
companions come together in the Great Hall of Skyhold to celebrate before going
their own ways. Adding a hint of bitterness to the festive mood, Morrigan
relativizes their achievement: ‘a victory against chaos, but the world remains
forever changed’.64 Dorian also qualifies the player’s moment of glory: ‘We’ll just
have to be satisfied with being alive, and together’.65 There is no triumph, only
survival. What counts is not individual achievement but to be sheltered in a
functioning community.
Diversity, order, collaboration, and evolutionary growth are the central values
communicated in the design of Dragon Age: Inquisition. A deeply Canadian game,
it talks more about human relationships than individual empowerment, expanding
the hero into a heroic collective. With its procedurality, its diffuse and dynamic
teleology, Canadian culture seems to lend itself nicely to the design of videogames
as an interactive form of cultural expression. Dragon Age: Inquisition is the
peaceable kingdom’s reply to the Gamergate controversy: BioWare have made a
statement and changed the medium, without claiming any glory or creating
conflict. ‘Oh Canada…’
Notes
1
‘Section 2: Population by Age and Sex’, Statistics Canada, accessed 15 June
2015, http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/91-215-x/2012000/part-partie2-eng.htm.
2
Adam Dodek, The Canadian Constitution (Toronto/ON: Dundurn, 2013), 17.
3
Northrop Frye, ‘Author’s Preface’, in The Bush Garden: Essays on the Canadian
Imagination (Concord/ON: House of Anansi Press, 1995), xxiii.
4
‘Chapter XXV: A Council for the Arts, Letters, Humanities and Social Sciences’,
Library and Archives Canada, accessed 15 June 2015,
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/2/5/h5-452-e.html.
5
Northrop Frye, ‘Conclusions to a Literary History of Canada’, in The Bush
Garden: Essays on the Canadian Imagination (Concord/ON: House of Anansi
Press, 1995), 219.
6
Margaret Atwood, Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature
(Toronto/ON: McClelland, 2004), 41-41.
7
Frye, ‘Conclusions to a Literary History of Canada’, 222-223.
8
Ibid.
9
Ibid.
10
Ibid., 220.
11
Frye, ‘Author’s Preface’, xxiii.
__________________________________________________________________
12
Atwood, Survival, 110.
13
Ibid., 120-121.
14
Margaret Atwood, Surfacing (London/Engl.: Virago, 2008), 123.
15
John Ralston Saul, A Fair Country: Telling Truths about Canada (Toronto/ON
at al.: Penguin, 2009), 3.
16
Ibid.
17
Ibid., 4.
18
Ibid.
19
Ibid., 6.
20
Ibid., 7.
21
Ibid., 303.
22
Ibid., 315.
23
Gérard Bouchard and Charles Taylor, Building the Future: A Time for
Reconciliation, quoted in John Ralston Saul, A Fair Country, 317.
24
Saul, A Fair Country, 317.
25
Ibid., 318.
26
Ibid., 319.
27
Ibid., 321.
28
Supreme Court of Canada, ‘Reference re Same-Sex Marriage’, on CanLII,
accessed 15 June 2015,
http://www.canlii.org/en/ca/scc/doc/2004/2004scc79/2004scc79.html.
29
Linda Hutcheon, The Politics of Postmodernism (London/Engl. and New
York/NY: Routledge, 2000), 11.
30
Linda Hutcheon, Splitting Images: Contemporary Canadian Ironies
(Toronto/ON, Oxford/Engl. et al.: Oxford University Press, 1991), 1.
31
Linda Hutcheon, The Canadian Postmodern: A Study of Contemporary
Canadian Fiction (Don Mills/ON, Oxford/Engl. et al.: Oxford University Press,
2012), 183.
32
Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge
(Minneapolis/MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1979), xxiv.
33
Sherrill E. Grace, Canada and the Idea of North (Montréal/QC, Kingston/ON et
al.: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2007), 6.
34
Ibid., 15.
35
Ibid.
36
Ibid., 16.
37
Sherrill Grace, On the Art of Being Canadian (Vancouver/BC and Toronto/ON:
UBC Press, 2009), 154.
38
Atwood, Survival, 9-10.
39
GaymerX, ‘Building a Better Romance Presented by BioWare’, Youtube,
accessed 15 June 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osFtsfucIhA.
__________________________________________________________________
40
David Gaider, ‘To the op… Dragon Age II Official Campaign Quests and Story
(SPOILERS)’, on BioWare forum, accessed 15 June 2015,
http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/304/index/6661775&lf=8.
41
René Schallegger, ‘Dragon Age: Inquisition – Forging the Inquisition’, Youtube,
accessed 15 June 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZz2UsYZM4Y.
42
Ibid.
43
Atwood, Survival, 175.
44
Ibid., 55.
45
46
Margaret Atwood, ‘Introduction’, in Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian
Literature (Toronto/ON: McClelland, 2004), 12.
47
René Schallegger, ‘Dragon Age: Inquisition – Forging the Inquisition’, Youtube,
accessed 15 June 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZz2UsYZM4Y.
48
Bioware, Dragon Age: Inquisition.
49
Atwood, Survival, 175-192.
50
51
René Schallegger, ‘Dragon Age: Inquisition – What Guides You?’, Youtube,
accessed 15 June 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-rG9Hj9f6E.
52
53
Ibid.
54
Dodek, Canadian Constitution, 60.
55
56
Schallegger, ‘Dragon Age: Inquisition – Forging the Inquisition’.
57
Frye, ‘Conclusions to a Literary History of Canada’, 251.
58
59
60
Ibid.
61
Ibid.
62
Ibid.
63
64
65
Ibid.
Bibliography
Atwood, Margaret. ‘Introduction’. Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian
Literature, edited by Margaret Atwood, 3-13. Toronto/ON: McClelland & Stewart,
2004.
__________________________________________________________________
Atwood, Margaret. Surfacing. London/Engl.: Virago, 2008.
Atwood, Margaret. Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature.

Toronto/ON: McClelland & Stewart, 2004.
BioWare. Dragon Age: Inquisition. Toronto, CA: EA, 2014. Videogame.
Dodek, Adam. The Canadian Constitution. Toronto/ON: Dundurn, 2013.
Frye, Northrop. ‘Author’s Preface’. The Bush Garden: Essays on the Canadian
Imagination, edited by Northrop Frye, xxiii. Concord/ON: House of Anansi Press,
1995.
Frye, Northrop. ‘Conclusion to a Literary History of Canada’. The Bush Garden:

Essays on the Canadian Imagination, edited by Northrop Frye, 215-245.
Concord/ON: House of Anansi Press, 1995.
Gaider, David. ‘To the op… Dragon Age II Official Campaign Quests and Story
(SPOILERS)’. BioWare forum, 25 March 2011. Accessed 15 June 2015.
http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/304/index/6661775&lf=8.
GaymerX. ‘Building a Better Romance Presented by BioWare’. Youtube, 4

November 2014. Accessed 15 June 2015.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osFtsfucIhA.
Grace, Sherrill. On the Art of Being Canadian. Vancouver/BC and Toronto/ON:

UBC Press, 2009.
Grace, Sherrill E. Canada and the Idea of North. Montréal/QC, Kingston/ON, et

al.: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2007.
Hutcheon, Linda. The Politics of Postmodernism. London/Engl. and New

York/NY: Routledge, 2000.
Hutcheon, Linda. The Canadian Postmodern: A Study of Contemporary Canadian

Fiction. Don Mills/ON, Oxford/Engl., et al.: Oxford University Press, 2012.
Lyotard, Jean-François. The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge.

Minneapolis/MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1979.
__________________________________________________________________
Nekhaila, Stephen. ‘Fox News Thrashes Mass Effect’. Youtube, 23 January 2008.
Accessed 15 June 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0kdm7fg804.
Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters and Sciences.

‘Chapter XXV: A Council for the Arts, Letters, Humanities and Social Sciences’.
Library and Archives Canada, 27 January 2001. Accessed 15 June 2015.
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/2/5/h5-452-e.html.
Saul, John Ralston. A Fair Country: Telling Truths about Canada. Toronto/ON,
New York/NY, et al.: Penguin Canada, 2009.
Schallegger, René. ‘Dragon Age: Inquisition – Forging the Inquisition’. Youtube, 1

February 2015. Accessed 15 June 2015.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZz2UsYZM4Y.
Schallegger, René. ‘Dragon Age: Inquisition – What Guides You?’ Youtube, 1

February 2015. Accessed 15 June 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-
rG9Hj9f6E.
‘Section 2: Population by Age and Sex’. Statistics Canada, 19 June 2013.

Accessed 15 June 2015.
http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/91-215-x/2012000/part-partie2-eng.htm.
Supreme Court of Canada. ‘Reference re Same-Sex Marriage’. CanLII, 9

December 2004. Accessed 15 June 2015.
http://www.canlii.org/en/ca/scc/doc/2004/2004scc79/2004scc79.html.
René Schallegger was trained in English and American Studies, as well as French,
with focus on literary criticism at Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt (Austria),
and Anglia Ruskin University (Cambridge/UK). Currently he is Assistant Professor
for British-, Canadian-, and Game Studies at Alpen-Adria-Universität.
Romance Is Difficult: Choice, Agency and the Sexual Identity of
NPCs in BioWare’s Dragon Age: Inquisition
Veit Frick
Abstract
Romance is not only difficult in primary reality but also in the secondary reality of
videogames. It especially applies to writing and designing interactive romances in
a believable way that allows for a realistic rendering of a character’s romantic life
and sexual identity. This chapter will reflect on the player’s possibilities for
romantic interactions with non-player-characters (NPCs) in videogames. It will
also discuss the lack of risk of failure when conquering someone’s heart. As Mitu
Khandaker-Kokoris states this is not only ethically questionable, but also a flawed
representation of the real world.1 BioWare’s most recent role playing game (RPG)
Dragon Age: Inquisition (DA:I) seeks out a new approach to simulating romances
and flirting, as NPCs are given their own sexual identities.2 While other games,
like Mass Effect 3, have already done that, they mostly prevent any romance
options right away if the NPC is not interested.3 In DA:I, NPCs express and (to
some extent) live their sexual identities. When talking to a non-interested NPC, the
player is still given dedicated romance-options during conversations. However now
it is possible that the player character’s advances are refused, even though the NPC
might be romanceable by a different main character. For what seems to be the first
time, players are exposed to an extensive pool of romantic and sexual choices
while their agency is consciously limited.
Key Words: BioWare, Dragon Age: Inquisition, agency, choice, romance, sexual
identity, representation, NPCs.
*****
1. Why Dragon Age: Inquisition?

A RPG is the obvious choice upon deciding which game to choose as a case
study for researching romances between NPCs and the player character (PC). The
strong focus on narrative not only makes for interesting characters but also
supports a believable main character and avatar which the player often can identify
with very well, leading to a high grade of immersion. Also romances between the
avatar and NPCs are not uncommon. DA:I uses all these elements of typical RPGs
and also features new approaches on how game can use romantic relationships to
enhance the gameplay.
2. How Do Other Games Deal with Romances?

DA:I is by far not the only game featuring romances between the avatar of the
player and NPCs, in fact there are numerous other RPGs using amorous liaisons as
86 Romance Is Difficult
__________________________________________________________________
gameplay mechanic. Since there are many different games having many different
approaches it is favourable to have a classification for games in order to efficiently
compare them. René Schallegger’s Triad of Triads provides the terminology that
will be used in the following to give a short overview on how other games deal
with romantic relations.4 The Triad of Triads classifies games on three levels: the
player experience, the function of the avatar and the dynamics of the game’s
system. Each of these levels has three alignments describing how the game works.
Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Skyrim) is a perfect example of the
role avatar function of the Triad of Triads.5 The player’s avatar has its predefined
role in the diegesis but its species, gender and appearance can be freely chosen
among many different options. With regard to system dynamics the game places
itself near elasticity with tendencies towards plasticity, meaning the game gives the
player a considerable amount of agency but at some points it still tries to lead the
player towards a certain path. The player experience oscillates between immersion
and incitement but also moves towards engagement at times.
In Skyrim, romances come in the form of marriages. There are over 60 NPCs
the player’s avatar, the Dragonborn, can marry, with no restrictions in regards to a
preferred gender or species on the part of the avatar or the NPCs. In order to get
married, every character has its own criterion that has to be met; this can be as
simple as bringing the NPC 10 bear pelts or hiring them at least once as mercenary.
Throughout the whole game there is only one character, Serana, who will kindly
reject the Dragonborn’s proposal. All other NPCs either are marriageable or have
no option to be asked whatsoever. They don’t appear to have an opinion or
thoughts on the matter at all. Unlike recent BioWare games, romances in Skyrim do
not affect the narrative in a meaningful way.
In CD Projekt’s The Witcher, the avatar function matches the personality
alignment according to the Triad of Triads: the player’s avatar, Geralt, is a
predefined character with little to no customization options.6 As far as system
dynamics are concerned The Witcher is set near elasticity with some tendencies
towards rigidity. Even though the player is granted agency at many points during
the game, the basic storyline is still strongly authored. The player experience is
similar to that of Skyrim but with a keener focus on immersion. Although Geralt
can have many possible sexual encounters with near to no impact on the game
narrative, the choice between the only two meaningful possible romances heavily
impacts the narrative.
3. What Is Wrong with That?

Leaving aside all aspects of gender representation, these images of how
romantic relationships work are still flawed in many ways. First of all in nearly all
RPGs it is easy to enter into a meaningful relationship with another virtual
character. In most games there isn’t even any risk of failure upon trying to
romantically engage a NPC, since there is no way to be rejected by them.
Veit Frick 87
__________________________________________________________________
Khandaker-Kokoris describes this flaw very accurately: ‘In order to pursue a
romance with a non-player character, the process effectively becomes “press the
correct sequence of buttons in order to get them to sleep with you”.’7
Not only are these portrayals very inaccurate at representing how our primary
reality works, they also fall short of depicting conventional secondary realities.
This disconnect between the narrative of the game and how romances are
implemented in its mechanics can not only lead to loss of immersion during
gameplay, it is also a missed opportunity in terms of game design: entwining the
narrative and mechanics of a game by simulating challenges that are present in the
narrative through the mechanics would create an exciting experience for the player.
Another aspect that should be viewed critically is how this representation of
sexuality and romance could lead to a false impression on how romances work in
our primary reality – in particular for those of us who could not make their own
experiences yet. This especially holds true for RPGs that otherwise emphasise
believable stories and characters and cause high levels of immersion. This is where
BioWare comes in: the game design of DA:I allows us an original and hitherto
unique approach to romantic relationships in secondary realities.
4. What Is Romance and Sexuality Like in Thedas?

To understand how romances work in DA:I it is crucial to understand how
sexuality and romantic endeavours work in Thedas, the fictive continent on which
the narrative of DA:I and all other Dragon Age games are set. In Thedas sexuality
is mostly considered a private matter. There is also no heterosexual norm and
relationships between all genders are treated equally, as long as they do not
endanger the continuity of noble families. In the first game of the series, Dragon
Age: Origins, the player’s avatar can find a note written by a famous Thedosian
scholar, Brother Genitivi, trying to summarize how sexuality works in Thedas:
[…] Typically, one’s sexual habits are considered natural and

separate from matters of procreation, and only among the
nobility, where procreation involves issues of inheritance and the
union of powerful families, is it considered of vital importance.
Yet, even there, a noble who has done their duty to the family
might be allowed to pursue their own sexual interests without
raising eyebrows. […] Nowhere is it forbidden, and sex of any
kind is only considered worthy of judgment when taken to awful
excess or performed in the public eye.8
Knowing this, it should not be surprising that there are many different types of
romance options in DA:I, including exclusively gay, lesbian and bisexual
relationships.
__________________________________________________________________
5. How Does Romance Work in DA:I?
In order to have common ground with the examples provided before, it is useful
to also apply the Triad of Triads to DA:I.9 The player experience is mostly a
mixture of strong immersion with elements of incitement but from time to time the
game also features phases of engagement. The function of the avatar is primarily as
a role for the player to inhabit. The Inquisitor is a character customized by the
player. They can choose between four different species, two genders and three
classes. But there is also some sort of predefined personality that comes with the
avatar. Depending on which customization options were selected during character
creation, the avatar has a certain background story that cannot be modified by the
player. The system dynamics are best described by elasticity. All game elements,
like dialogue lines, are authored and cannot be changed but there is a wide variety
of choices to select from.
Interaction with NPCs in DA:I happens via the Dialogue Wheel BioWare has
implemented in all of their more recent games. While the Inquisitor is talking to a
character the player is prompted with a set of different possible answers to choose
from ordered around a circle to form a wheel. The centre of the wheel shows a
graphical indication of what type of response each answer is: a clenched fist for
aggressive options, a question mark for open questions, a crown for answers where
knowledge of nobility is required and many more. Romance is depicted in the
dialogue wheel by two indicators: a heart for further flirtatious or romantic
comments, and a broken heart for the end of the given affair. These dedicated
symbols ensure that players always know which option they have to select in order
to let the avatar act in a certain way. They also know when they are given agency
to be flirtatious and when they are denied that choice.
These amorous options can be used on several characters in DA:I. The game
features eight romanceable NPCs, two additional individuals one can flirt with on a
regular basis and one casual sexual encounter. As in previous BioWare games like
Mass Effect 3, all eight characters have their own sexual identity. Some are only
interested in a specific gender, some only in a specific species. For example, Solas,
an elven scholar and party member of the Inquisitor, is only interested in elven
women. Dorian on the other hand, also a party member and a Tevinter mage, is
only interested in same-sex relationships, but he has no specific preferences where
the species is concerned. The NPC’s identity is not only defined by gender and
species bias; they also take likings in certain personality traits. For instance, Dorian
loves to flirt, and a prude Inquisitor unwilling to flirt will have a hard time trying to
romance him.
While only two out of the eight romance options present in DA:I do not have
any gender or species biases, most of them can be romantically engaged or flirted
with even if they are not interested in the Inquisitor. This can either lead to a series
of playful banter, in case of a female avatar flirting with Dorian, or to the
Inquisitor’s advances being turned down. If a female Inquisitor tries to court
Veit Frick 89
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Cassandra, she replies with: ‘You are the Herald of Andraste, and my Leader... and
a woman. I take it as a compliment, truly. I hope we can remain friends’.10 This
quote not only shows that the player’s avatar can be rebuked; it is also an example
for how NPCs in DA:I make their own choices concerning their sexuality.
Trying to generally describe how to start a romance with a character in DA:I
can prove difficult since their narrative diversity is also implemented in the
mechanics of the game. Both the previous games of the Dragon Age franchise
included a scale-like indication for how much the party members feel towards the
player avatar. While this sort of measurement still exists in a form called approval
points, their influence on the romance options has been vastly decreased. Not only
is it no longer sufficient to have the right amount of points, for some characters –
such as the Inquisitor’s advisors, who are not party members –they don’t even
exist. It is also important how the Inquisitor interacts with NPCs and their
surroundings. The choices the Inquisitor makes along their path can influence
whether or not a certain romance option is no longer available, or even cause an
existing relationship to break off immediately.
If the Inquisitor at some point tries to romantically engage an interested NPC
they will, after some time, receive a special quest from that NPC. After fulfilling
that quest he or she will then have the opportunity to proceed in the relationship in
the next level. For most romances, the Inquisitor is offered a sexual relationship at
this point. Whether or not the Inquisitor agrees to this offer, the game locks the
relationship as long as the player does not explicitly end the relationship. Once the
relationship is locked, the game will react differently to the Inquisitor. NPCs will
talk about the Inquisitor’s relationship, non-romanced NPCs will sometimes
romance each other and most importantly, the Inquisitor will not be able to start a
new romantic relationship as long as he does not end the current liaison. If they do
so, it is not possible to pursue that relationship again.
6. What Is Different and Why Is It Important?

As far as romances are concerned, many features of DA:I are not entirely new
but nonetheless display significant progress compared to older approaches. NPCs
in DA:I are not simple toys for the Inquisitor to play with. They have their own
identities and their views on how sexuality and romance work; and they do not
only tell you about it, they also act accordingly.
In the romantic gameplay of DA:I, the player’s avatar is not necessarily
everyone’s ideal partner. It is possible that some NPCs are simply not interested in
the Inquisitor, either because of his or her choices or because of the NPC’s
preferences for a certain gender or species. Since this was already the case in other
games, the one thing unique to DA:I is that the game does not take away player
agency by removing the possibilities of trying to romantically engage those non-
interested NPCs. Until now, if there was a character who was just not attracted to
the avatar of the player, the game would remove the possibility to flirt or to
__________________________________________________________________
amorously engage this character. DA:I includes these options instead and if the
NPC pursues them, the Inquisitor’s advances fail to change a character’s sexuality
or interests. This adds a whole new layer to romantic endeavours in the game: risk.
Failure is an important part of our world as well as games. Without the risk of
failure there can be no challenge. This can be used by game designers to create less
foreseeable and more vivid storylines and quests, resulting in a higher grade of
immersion. DA:I also covers another issue: even if you are the Inquisitor, an
extremely mighty person that can decide on the fate of countries or even the whole
of Thedas, other persons are still entitled to their own opinion and their own sexual
identity. The mere fact that the player’s avatar is this powerful does not grant them
moral superiority over their companions.
7. What Is Still Left to Do?

Although DA:I made a small but important step towards a more realistic
portrayal of romantic relationships in games, there are still many issues that can
and should be addressed in future games. One difference between the depiction of
love in DA:I and the harsh reality is that in reality romantic affairs often come with
a multitude of problems.
I do not argue that games should implement all possible problems and aspects
of romance and love; in fact, I believe that a game doing so would no longer be
fun. I argue that games should critically reflect on how amorous affairs work in our
primary reality and try to be as realistic as possible in their representation.
8. Conclusion
Giving NPCs in RPGs their own sexual identity and simulated choices can not
only be used to enhance immersion by having a more relatable rendering of
romances in real life, it can also serve as a tool for a more interesting and lifelike
gameplay.
Simulating a more tangible secondary reality could also help our society in
primary reality by drawing a more realistic picture of how romantic affairs work
and by critically reflecting on ourselves. By letting NPCs shape their own,
seemingly self-autonomous decisions, BioWare successfully attempt to add
another layer of realism to their fictional works.
While the way romances are depicted in DA:I and other games is still not
perfect, and there is yet a lot of work to do, the development is heading in the right
direction. It will be interesting to see if how this maturation in the medium of
videogames will continue.
Notes
1
Mitu Khandaker-Kokoris, ‘NPCs Need Love Too: Simulating Love and
Romance, from a Game Design Perspective,’ Game Love: Essays on Play and
Veit Frick 91
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Affection, ed. Jessica Enevold, Esther MacCallum-Stewart (North Carolina, US:

McFarland, 2015), 82-93.
2
Dragon Age: Inquisition, Toronto: BioWare, 2014. Videogame.
3
Mass Effect 3, Toronto: Bioware, 2012. Videogame.
4
René Schallegger, ‘WTH Are Games? Towards a Triad of Triads’, Digitale
Spiele: Grundlagen, Texte, Kontexte, ed. René Schallegger, Jörg Helbig
(forthcoming).
5
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Maryland, US: Bethesda Game Studios, 2011.
Videogame.
6
The Witcher, Poland: CD Projekt, 2007.
7
Khandaker-Kokoris, ‘NPCs Need Love Too: Simulating Love and Romance,
from a Game Design Perspective’, 86.
8
David Gaider, et al., Dragon Age: The World of Thedas Volume 1 (Oregon, US:
Dark Horse Books, 2013), 72; Dragon Age: Origins, Toronto: BioWare, 2009.
Videogame.
9
René Schallegger, ‘WTH Are Games? Towards a Triad of Triads‘ (forthcoming)
10
Dragon Age: Inquisition.
Bibliography
Dragon Age: Inquisition. Toronto: BioWare, 2014. Videogame.
Dragon Age: Origins. Toronto: BioWare, 2009. Videogame.
Gaider, David, Joanna Berry, Sheryl Chee, Sylvia Feketekuty, Ben Gelinas, Mary
Kirby, Lukas Kristjanson and Karin Weekes. Dragon Age: The World of Thedas
Volume 1. Oregon, US: Dark Horse Books, 2013.
Khandaker-Kokoris, Mitu. ‘NPCs Need Love Too: Simulating Love and Romance,
from a Game Design Perspective’. Game Love: Essays on Play and Affection,
edited by Jessica Enevold and Esther MacCallum-Stewart, 82-93. North Carolina,
US: McFarland, 2015.
Mass Effect 3. Toronto: Bioware, 2012. Videogame.
Schallegger, René. ‘WTH Are Games? Towards a Triad of Triads’. Digitale

Spiele: Grundlagen, Texte, Kontexte, edited by René Schallegger and Jörg Helbig.
Germany: Herbert von Halem Verlag (forthcoming).
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Maryland, US: Bethesda Game Studios, 2011.
Videogame.
__________________________________________________________________
The Witcher. Poland: CD Projekt, 2007. Videogame.
Veit Frick is currently a student of computer science as well as English and

American studies at the Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt (Austria). His main
focus lies in game studies and game design. In his spare time he is developing
games for different platforms.
A (Dis)United Galaxy: The Silenced Voices of Non-Human
Minorities in BioWare’s Mass Effect
Vanessa Erat
Abstract
The game design of BioWare’s Mass Effect1 (ME) trilogy caters to a multicultural
audience with a distinctly inclusive message, and tackles issues of diversity.
Together with the interactive character of the medium, this allows the design to
steer the moral compasses of players towards critical reflection, and equips them
with tools to navigate through an interstellar society with a plurality of cultures.
ME juxtaposes this with a narrative focus on the advancement of humanity in its
community, alongside an inherently anthropocentric worldview in the gaming
experience. This exposes the player to communities and entire species that are
subjected to a stratification process based on their attitude towards humanity and
human interests. In this chapter, I will relate examples of intercultural friction to
two turning points in ME’s narrative. I will also explore how BioWare present non-
human and non-conformist species in ME. The politically isolated batarians and the
nomadic quarians serve as examples for how species have to conform to a human
code of conduct that is repeatedly instigated as the implicit norm. The exposure to
an increasingly dominant foreign value system invites the notion of the subaltern
into my analysis. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s ‘Can the Subaltern Speak?’2
provides the framework for reading the batarians and quarians as BioWare’s
attempt at recreating past imperialist-colonialist tensions between different
cultures, while conforming to the elitist (in this case, human-centric) perspective.
This poses the question whether the ‘silenced’ communities at the fringes of the
galaxy are ultimately granted their (self-)autonomous voices in the game design,
and how and to what extent players can enforce their agency when engaging with
them.
Key Words: BioWare, Mass Effect, subaltern, cultural identity, postcolonialism,

player agency, dialogue wheel, designer ethics, player reflection.
*****
1. Introduction
The inclusive and multicultural values fostered by BioWare are not only felt in
the communal atmosphere of their socio-cultural context, but are also present in
their game design. All three major BioWare series3 have in common a highly
dynamic interaction between the player and the scripted world by means of a
multi-decision dialogue wheel that, in the case of the Mass Effect (ME) trilogy,
also monitors player ethics in terms of Paragon or Renegade parameters. So, when
we assume the role of the main protagonist Commander Shepard, who is tasked
94 A (Dis)United Galaxy
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with saving the galaxy from the invasion of a hostile machine race, the Reapers,4
we do so with our almost every act being subjected to a good/evil spectrum.
At the same time, humans are subjected to a rare representation as a second-
class species rather than as the intergalactic hegemony the audience might have
come to expect from science fiction classics such as the Star Trek continuum or the
Star Wars franchise. Blogger Kyle Munkittrick hails ME as a ground-breaking
science fiction series because ‘human beings are delusional about their importance
in the grand scheme of things’.5 While humanity indeed comes from humble
beginnings in ME, Munkittrick’s claim to human insignificance falls flat when
delving deeper into the game’s narrative design, which clearly centres on
humanity.
I wish to unearth the finer nuances of in-game morality alongside cultural
identity in ME, and how this informs the player experience. To do so I will relate
the silenced voices of non-human species to player agency and interaction with
them. Two species, the batarians and the quarians, offer an example of how
BioWare’s game design allows a postcolonial reading of the tensions between the
dominant anthropocentric perspective and the non-human minorities in the game.
2. Background
The species I wish to focus on in this case study come from relatively similar
backgrounds. They are anthropoid non-council species and thus without active
power in the Citadel council, which is the political, cultural and economic centre of
the united galaxy. Both used to have an embassy on the Citadel: the quarians lost
theirs whereas the batarians gave theirs up.
They also were or are both involved with slavery. The quarians created the geth
with the purpose of keeping them as a virtual intelligence workforce. When the
geth accidentally became sentient and developed artificial intelligence, a war
between creators and creations ensued. The geth won the conflict, driving the
quarians off their homeworld. To this day, they traverse the known galaxy in a
migrant fleet, and try to find work wherever possible. This has gained them a
reputation as beggars and thieves because some species see them as a cheap labour
force stealing work from others. Their impoverished life style, their negative
reputation and their desperate struggle to reclaim their homeworld are all
consequences of toying with forced labour. For the batarians, slavery constitutes an
innate part of their culture. They regularly raid colonies and clash with other
species over the batarians’ obstinate determination to curb their practices according
to the Citadel’s anti-slavery law. Additionally, the council refused to declare some
of their colonies as batarian territory, and thus indirectly allowed the human
Alliance to occupy the same region. This constitutes a crucial element in the
regular hostile encounters between batarians and humans.
All this information is available to the player from early on in ME1. The
quarians and batarians share similar starting points in the narrative where their
Vanessa Erat 95
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position and reputation in the galaxy are concerned, as well as their history and
cultural practices. It is therefore all the more interesting to observe their in-game
development, which is closely linked to their narrative function. I want to focus on
two specific missions to showcase the differences in the perception of the two
species from the human perspective: the Arrival DLC6 in ME2 and the war for the
quarian homeworld Rannoch in ME3.
3. Batarians
Since the player character establishes a crucial link between the player and the
game universe, it comes to no surprise that the human perspective creates the frame
into which our perceptions are cast.
The batarians are always viewed through the historical lens of interracial
tensions: since the human attempt to seize one of their colonies, relations between
the two species have been tense. When the player meets them in a main mission,
they are rarely more than targets during a gameplay scene, or bystanders for hostile
interactions about the human-batarian conflict. The Arrival DLC in ME2 more
actively engages batarians in the so-called ‘Aratoht mission’: they are responsible
for the abduction of a human scientist, which leads Shepard into a solar system
inhabited by batarians – the same solar system that, at the end of the mission, is
annihilated as a consequence of Shepard’s decision to destroy the connected mass
relay.
A batarian soldier maintains at the beginning of the mission that ‘those humans
will do anything to destroy us, I swear. […] We have to make this one an example
to the others. We can’t respond kindly to terrorists’.7 The attentive player will use
the following time gathering supplies to reflect on the comment, maybe even
critically reconsider their own involvement through the role of Shepard. The fact
that Shepard investigates without her8 team means that she lacks an outward
projection of her moral compass, i.e. her squad mates commenting on her
decisions. The brunt of the responsibility lies with Shepard, while simultaneously
player agency is removed and the choices of the player character are transferred to
cutscenes. One of BioWare’s most striking gameplay features, the dialogue wheel
and the decision-making process it entails, is noticeably curbed in its function. The
designers steer the moral compasses of players into a pre-arranged direction in
order to serve the narrative but touch upon problematic issues along the way: in no
variant of her attitude does Shepard ever consider not to go ahead with the
destruction of the relay, which may be due to the fact that it precedes the opening
act of ME3. One might argue that this renders it central to the development of the
plot – unless there would have been another way to link ME2 and ME3 together,
even if Shepard refuses to ‘successfully’ complete the Aratoht mission. The loss of
the batarian solar system is depicted as a necessary sacrifice to delay the Reapers’
advent but the mission undoubtedly leaves behind a foul aftertaste of ethnic
cleansing.
__________________________________________________________________
Shepard’s debriefing by Admiral Hackett follows immediately afterwards; as
the Alliance’s highest-ranking officer Hackett both incorporates the voice of
humanity’s space-faring military organisation and acts as the intermediary between
the player character and her species. Ideally, the debriefing dialogue serves as a
foil to stimulate critical reflection in the player. However, Shepard’s paragon
responses include ‘I had no choice’ which reads like a recognition of the lack of
player agency, while Hackett shatters a clear-cut opportunity to have the player
critically engage with what just happened: ‘If it were up to me, I’d give you a
damn medal. Unfortunately, not everyone will see it that way’.9 This provides
Shepard, and by extension the player, with easement of guilt alongside a
postponement for dealing with the issue.
In fact, apart from the duplicitous debriefing scene, most of the consequences
are swept under the rug in that they are simply dealt with ‘off-screen’ in the in-
game time that passes between the ending of ME2 and the beginning of ME3. Only
players who invest into the downloadable content, in addition to the main game(s),
are able to access the narrative bridge between ME2 and ME3, and participate in
the interaction that leads to Shepard committing a crime against the batarians,
whereas players without access to the DLC are only exposed to the consequences
at the beginning of the third instalment. The impact of this example of moralistic
storytelling, born at the crossroads between immersive play and a highly
interactive, narrative-focused game design, thus falls short with the part of the
audience who cannot access the narrative content that was published separately.
If the genocide of one species is the only means by which to delay the genocide
of all civilised Citadel species, designer ethics send a morally problematic message
to the audience, especially if the ones harmed have already been established as a
community on the fringes of society. The narrative purpose of the batarians seems
only marginally interested in breaking with prejudiced typecasting. Instead, it
perpetuates the fallacy of ethnic usefulness: the anthropocentric player perspective
feeds into a gradually evolving anthropocentric worldview in which species are
evaluated based upon their worth for humanity.
4. Quarians
The quarians have a similar starting point as the batarians but the hinge that
turns about their emergent storyline is their attitude towards and usefulness for
humanity. Going by BioWare’s ‘ethically appropriate’ direction in their designed
morality system, the Paragon choices of Shepard cause the quarian development to
differ vastly from the batarians’. To showcase this, I want to focus primarily on the
geth conflict as it is depicted in ME3 but also disclose stereotypes in the quarian
characterisation across the trilogy.
Their portrayal includes the aspects of a self-inflicted diaspora, questionable
positioning of remembered history and the revelation of historical irregularities,
and ultimately to correlating characteristics which place the quarian-geth conflict
Vanessa Erat 97
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in the context of the Arab-Israeli War. BioWare’s standard approach in terms of
designer ethics, i.e. to promote grey morality in the decision-making process,
becomes flawed when pitched against the conflicted Paragon/Renegade morality
system: Who holds the authority to decide what is a ‘good’ or a ‘bad’ decision? We
need to differentiate on two levels: the game designers in the secondary reality, and
ideally the players in the primary reality – but the latter have to be steered towards
critical reflection in order to ensure an ethically mature processing of the symbolic
and idealistic content that has gone into the game design.
This is where the quarian- and geth-centric main missions of ME3 come into
play. When the quarians invade their homeworld after centuries of nomadic exile,
they naturally stir the geth who are still living there into conflict. Where at the end
of ME2, Shepard helped to destroy an entire batarian solar system, she is now
drawn into this dispute by the quarians to help them recover their world. Not only
does this scream two flawed and archaic, albeit still popular, narrative tropes– the
‘White Saviour’ coming heroically to the rescue of the nomadic quarians as ‘Space
Jews’ – but it also begs the question how this is different than the batarian mess in
ME2. For one, humanity needs the quarian flotilla for the final war with the
Reapers; aiding them coincides with the human long-term goal. In a first step,
human involvement is thus affirmed as useful, and in a second step revealed as
crucial for a Paragon outcome of the entire conundrum – and thus ‘morally ideal’
in the eyes of the designers. Only with Shepard’s intervention can the quarians and
the geth reach a peaceful agreement, which also secures the support of both species
in the ‘War Effort’ against the Reapers.
It may sound like a logical intention when fighting a common enemy but the
way humanity – and by extension the player in the shoes of a human soldier –
achieves this remains questionable from an ethical point of view. Again and again
the game reminds the player that humanity lost Earth to the Reapers in the ME3
prologue, and attempts to stimulate empathy with the quarians on grounds of this
shared experience. At the same time, the geth are painted as a misunderstood,
peace-seeking species who are only to blame for an extremist splinter group that
sought conflict. Even the initial Geth War is blamed on the quarians, who since
then have had to face numerous challenges in the galaxy because of the prejudice
of others. It is Shepard who ultimately tells them that their mistakes have been paid
for, and thus extends her figurative blessing for the homeworld invasion. This not
only incurs a quarian debt to humanity but also places them in a hierarchical
position inferior to humanity, since they are made to depend on the latter’s
intervention. If we take Spivak’s postcolonial subaltern theory into account, we are
shown how one species is de-voicing another by curbing its self-worth and self-
identification: The colonising and patronising ‘Subject’, i.e. in this case humanity,
effectively exploits the merits of the ‘Other’ and simultaneously reaffirms its
position in the Subject’s shadow.10 Approaching the text from the eyes of the
Western hegemony, the colonial Other, which is the subaltern, is rid of all agency
__________________________________________________________________
and subjected to norms of the dominant cultural group. The same happens to the
quarians when they place the reconquest of their homeworld in the hands of
humanity. Unlike the batarians, the quarians invite humanity in, and as a result earn
their place among humanity’s closer allies. We experience this through the quarian
support in the War Effort but also through Tali Zorah’s close involvement with
Shepard. The player is therefore much more exposed to quarians on an empathic
level than batarians, which does little to foster critical reflection of the portrayal of
a species who appears hostile towards humans.
5. Outcome
Both the Aratoht and Rannoch missions ultimately serve a greater good, i.e. the
war against the Reapers. Where they differ is that in one, Shepard aids the quarians
in reclaiming their homeworld whereas in the other she commits genocide in a
batarian solar system. The scope of this real-world crime turned virtual villainy
deserves ample time to reflect on the consequences. ME falls short in this because
it provides the player only with morsels of the aftermath. At the same time, the
Rannoch mission sends the message that the quarian homeworld cannot be
reclaimed without human aid. Human self-worth is built upon the sacrificed dignity
of non-human minorities on the fringes of Citadel space, which regarding the
quarians comes hand in hand with colonialist thinking. In the case of the batarians,
BioWare fails to make it clearer that the narrative should ideally create a critical
dialogue between player and real-world crime, but the word ‘genocide’ never
emerges while Shepard kills about 300,000 batarians. Richard Bartle rightly
reminds designers that ‘to make real-world crimes legal in their virtual-world
implementation’11 ought to be handled with care and restricted to cases where it is
necessary. It is not necessary, though, for BioWare to all but sever the connection
between the virtual crime and its aftermath, by splitting them over two game
instalments and by allotting too little time and content that allows for player
reflection.
Kyle Munkittrick claims that ‘Mass Effect’s message is designed to open up
narrative complexity by destabilizing the player’s sense of confidence in his or her
own skin’.12 Although humanity's insignificance in the ME universe is debatable,
the game design undoubtedly has the potential to deconstruct conventions and
preconceptions, especially where the players’ moral value system is concerned.
‘Potential’ is the key word in this: BioWare creates a multitude of interesting
premises which pose ethical conundrums for the player to explore but ultimately
falter in the execution; they could take things much further than hinting at parallels
to real-life characteristics that are sometimes confusing rather than clear, and more
often than not slide into cultural stereotyping.
Vanessa Erat 99
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6. Conclusion
When Bartle muses on the inclusion of ‘persona issues’, i.e. game content that
could be ethically questionable or problematic, he argues that the difficulty lies in
tackling them with responsibility.13 In order for games to tap into their full
potential, players need to be given equal amounts of immersion and engagement
time, especially when the design exposes them to charged topics and issues such as
xenophobia in the secondary reality.
What players take away from their exposure to the game design is shaped by
the ethics of the designer team. Player ethics are liable to designer ethics since the
latter are first to inform world-building, whereas player ethics only come into play
after a game has already been shaped by the ideas and self-censorship of its
creators. When the game content includes issues that are sensible in the primary
reality, the designers carry all the more responsibility to shape the player
experience towards a meaningful outcome.
A secondary reality that critically addresses racism can be a great stepping
stone to further dismantle the engine of xenophobia in the primary reality by
instilling in players a message of communal solidarity. This is where games can
outshine other media: their interactive nature, paired with reflective design, create
a deeply personal experience and can thus trigger an emotive response in their
audience. Bartle claims that virtual worlds ‘promote introspection’:14 as an active
and interactive medium, games ideally make players reflect on their experience and
relate it to their internal value system. The most significant outcome a game can
achieve is a change in the primary reality. Like Ian Bogost argues, the truly
powerful thing that video games can do is to create empathy with the vulnerable.15
I would like to expand this and claim it is the people standing in the overlarge
shadow of those in power who deserve our empathy and solidarity; the vulnerable,
the disenfranchised, the marginalised. The games that not only challenge players
emotionally but also ethically are the true Paragon models of our time.
Notes
1
Mass Effect 1 (Edmonton: BioWare, 2007, Videogame), Mass Effect 2
(Edmonton: BioWare, 2010, PS3), Mass Effect 3 (Edmonton: BioWare, 2012,
Videogame).
2
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, ‘Can the Subaltern Speak?’, The Postcolonial
Studies Reader, ed. Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin (London:
Routledge, 1995).
3
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (Edmonton: BioWare, 2003,
Videogame); Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II – The Sith Lords
(Edmonton: BioWare, 2004, Videogame); Star Wars: The Old Republic
(Edmonton: BioWare, 2011, Videogame); Mass Effect 1 (Edmonton: BioWare,
2007, Videogame); Mass Effect 2 (Edmonton: BioWare, 2010, Videogame); Mass
__________________________________________________________________
Effect 3 (Edmonton: BioWare, 2011, Videogame); Dragon Age: Origins

(Edmonton: BioWare, 2009, Videogame); Dragon Age II (Edmonton: BioWare,
2011, Videogame); Dragon Age: Inquisition (Edmonton: BioWare, 2014,
Videogame).
4
Unlike the names of other species, ‘Reapers’ is capitalised in the game series.
This introduces a linguistic distinction between the galaxy’s civilisations and
the antagonistic machine race who opposes them, which is in itself worth a
scholarly investigation.
5
Kyle Munkittrick, ‘Why Mass Effect Is the Most Important Science Fiction
Universe of Our Generation’, Popbioethics, 2012, viewed on 09 June 2015,
http://www.popbioethics.com/2012/02/why-mass-effect-is-the-most-important-
science-fiction-universe-of-our-generation.
6
Downloadable content.
7
ME2: Arrival DLC (Edmonton: BioWare, 2011, Videogame Downloadable
Content).
8
Since my analysis is based on my personal playthroughs of the game, the use of
female pronouns for Shepard also reflects my personal customisation of the
character.
9
ME2: Arrival DLC.
10
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, ‘Can the Subaltern Speak?’, The Postcolonial
Studies Reader, ed. Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin (London:
Routledge, 1995), 24.
11
Richard A. Bartle, Designing Virtual Worlds (Berkeley/CA: New Riders, 2004),
676.
12
Munkittrick, ‘Why Mass Effect Is the Most Important Science Fiction Universe
of Our Generation’.
13
Bartle, Designing Virtual Worlds, 680.
14
Ibid., 686.
15
Ian Bogost, How to Do Things with Videogames (Minneapolis/MN: University
of Minnesota Press, 2011), 23.
Bibliography
Bartle, Richard A. Designing Virtual Worlds. Berkeley/CA: New Riders, 2004.
Bogost, Ian. How to Do Things with Videogames. Minneapolis/MN: University of

Minnesota Press, 2011.
Mass Effect 1. Edmonton: BioWare, 2007. Videogame.

Vanessa Erat 101
__________________________________________________________________
Mass Effect 2: Arrival DLC. Edmonton: BioWare, 2011. Videogame

Downloadable Content.
Munkittrick, Kyle. ‘Why Mass Effect Is the Most Important Science Fiction
Universe of Our Generation’. Popbioethics, 2012. Viewed on 9 June 2015.
http://www.popbioethics.com/2012/02/why-mass-effect-is-the-most-important-
science-fiction-universe-of-our-generation.
Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. ‘Can the Subaltern Speak?’ The Postcolonial Studies
Reader, edited by Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin, 24-28. London:
Routledge, 1995.
Vanessa Erat was instructed in English and American Studies at Alpen-Adria

University Klagenfurt, Austria, and Bangor University, Wales. Currently she is a
graduate student at Alpen-Adria University where she focuses on British-,
Literature- and Game Studies.
Part III
Social Impact through Videogames

Massively Multiplayer Online Science
Attila Szantner
Abstract
Massively Multiplayer Online Science is a new, innovative way for citizen science
to connect scientific research projects with video games by injecting tasks to be
solved as a seamless gaming experience. Research tasks are completely integrated
with game mechanics, narrative and visuals. Converting a small fraction of the
billions of hours spent with playing video games will have a huge impact on
scientific research, and can change how video games’ expertise is perceived. While
citizen science solutions helped scientific research to achieve significant results,
they also have issues that need to be overcome – acquiring new contributors and
keeping a long-term engagement are among the most severe ones. We propose a
solution with the project MMOS that gives an adequate answer to these challenges,
and open up new channels between citizens and researchers.
Key Words: Citizen science, video games, game design, gamification, MMOS.
*****
1. Classical Online Citizen Science

In the past decade online citizen science as a phenomenon amazed us all, seeing
the results produced, the valuable contributions, the clever solutions, the
integration of gamification. The best example is Zooniverse – the biggest platform
for online citizen science – which has hosted tens of research projects in diverse
fields like astronomy, zoology, biology, climatology or social sciences.
In 2014, with a rather intuitive process we identified some shortcomings of the
present setup of how citizen science works. The first big issue was that the
acquisition of new users to help these projects was not easy and rather costly,
energy consuming and unpredictable. One can find many interesting and feature
rich citizen science platforms but often they simply lack of manpower.
Secondly, if a researcher manages to attract people to come and give the
research project a try, keeping a user engaged long-term is even more problematic.
Many platforms and projects utilize gamification to tackle this issue, but in many
cases it only feels like a bit of spice added on the top of the repetitive tasks. A
typical user behaviour is to take a look at a project, submit a couple of solutions
and then leave. Beside the power users who are the engine of such projects, the
drop-off rate is relatively high. This is not just a problem of throughput, but like in
other fields, getting professional in solving certain tasks requires training and
practice, which can only be ensured by long-term engagement.
That lead us to the realization that there was no clear separation of concerns of
fields of expertise. Though many citizen science projects work together with
106 Massively Multiplayer Online Science
__________________________________________________________________
counselling or small game developer teams in the field of gamification, these
cannot be compared to the giant actors of the game industry. Although we saw that
many great applications and gamified solutions had been created, the users’
primary motivation remained to help scientific research. We felt that the power of
engagement that lies in games were not used to its full extent.
Last, but not least we saw that the reliability of the resource is relatively low.
Even with platforms like Zooniverse, where there are already more than a million
users, research projects are competing with each other for users’ time. It means that
the research project invests time, energy and money into creating a solution, into
promoting it and after the initial investment they hope for a positive response from
the community and a share of the users’ attention. This happens more easily if the
topic is lovable, like saving the planet or whales, but produces much less response
from users in case of a less appealing problem set.
Please note – as I mentioned earlier – that these hypotheses were based on
personal experiences rather than a meticulous study of papers and data published
on the subject. Later on though as we advanced with the actual realization of our
project we found several articles, published data and other information confirming
our original thoughts.1
2. Connecting Video Games with Citizen Science

On the other hand, there is the phenomenon of video games. Gamers
collectively spend billions of hours every week playing with them. Just alone with
the game World of Warcraft gamers collectively spent almost 6 million years by
2010.2 So instead of trying to create games or gamified solutions, we decided to
utilise the enormous power in already existing major video games. People already
spend a lot of time trying to solve complex problems in video games. If we manage
to inject these research projects into games as a seamless gaming experience –
integrating them into the game mechanics, narrative and visuals, we can tap into
that huge resource. And thus if we manage to convert a tiny fraction of time spent
on computer games, we can deliver a powerhouse of human computation to
science.
This setup, that we later named Massively Multiplayer Online Science (MMOS)
would answer all the above mentioned issues. There is a massive amount of user
base already engaged, motivated to solve complex tasks. As the fact that the gamer
is working on real life problems is not a secret, the intrinsic motivation of helping
science remains to be very important, but to keep up the long-term engagement,
integration with in-game reward systems and other game mechanics is vital and
adds an additional layer of motivation. Separation of concerns is solved, letting
researchers do research work (define tasks, analyse results, communicate in
research related issues) and professional game designers create the in-game
experience. The reliability of resources is already proven – these games are out
Attila Szantner 107
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there for a long time, and some of them are running for more than a decade now
with hundreds of thousands of devoted players.
3. The Evolution of the Project

Apart from the obvious administrative steps of setting up a legal entity MMOS
Sàrl in Switzerland together with my partner, Bernard Revaz, we started to work
on the biggest challenge: connecting the two worlds of science and video game
industry.
First we approached several scientific research groups from around the world to
validate the idea and to gain support for our project. The reaction was overly
positive from the most respected scientists and we immediately faced with several
research projects that became perfect candidates for the platform in proteomics,
exoplanet research, cosmology, malaria diagnosis, zoology – and the list is
continuously growing.
Secondly, we started to look for partners in the gaming industry. In the
beginning we identified EVE Online to be a perfect match for the project. EVE
Online is the biggest science-fiction themed massively multiplayer online game. It
has around half a million subscribers and almost at any time around thirty-thousand
people are online and playing the game. That level of activity is largely enough to
test the concept. The game is famous for its steep learning curve, so the user base is
already used to solve complex tasks in-game. Moreover, the science-fiction lore
and the visuals makes it easy to integrate scientific problems from diverse fields
from proteomics to astrophysics research. The reception of the concept was very
positive from CCP (the company behind EVE Online) and we set up a project
together with the CADIA of Reykjavik University to create a prototype. The
research project to be injected in the game is coming from the Human Protein
Atlas3 Subcell Atlas – a classification problem of microscopic images of
immunofluorescently stained cells.
During the implementation phase, working together closely with the EVE
Online team, we decided to set up an Application Programming Interface (API) to
handle citizen science tasks – allocating tasks to gamers, keeping trace of their
track record, aggregating results. This approach proved to be very useful and
future-proof by lowering the entry-barrier for other partners in the gaming industry
to integrate this feature.
In 2015 a prototype was presented at the EVE Fanfest, the annual gamer
reunion of EVE Online. 4 This was another huge step in the process, namely to get
feedback from the gamers, who turned out to be very supportive and interested of
this new idea. They immediately got interested in the educational aspect of the
project.
Since then together with CCP we are working on delivering the interface in-
game and launching this feature on the public test servers of EVE Online (by the
time of publication this may have happened already)
__________________________________________________________________
Image 1: Interface design plan for the HPA Subcell Atlas

© 2015 CCP. Used with permission.
4. Lessons Learnt so Far and Future Possibilities

Though we are far from the first publicly available version, there are already
valuable lessons learnt.
We have positive feedbacks on our initial presumption, that Massively
Multiplayer Online Science is a win-win situation for all the participants in the
process.
The research teams get access to a new community of users to help their
research efforts, in a way that substantially lowers their investments. We met with
research groups who decided to exclude citizen science and gamification from their
project, simply because they realized that the investments needed are out of scope.
Learning the possibility of injecting their scientific problems into major computer
games made them embrace citizen science again.
In September 2015, Nature Methods has published an article on the Human
Protein Atlas5, in which the MMOS project has been mentioned and a screenshot
of the interface design in progress was published – probably the first time ever an
image from a video game appeared in Nature Methods. Since we are only at the
development phase of the project and see positive impact, we predict even more
substantial growing interest from the scientific community yet to come.
Game industry has the chance to support projects whose aim are to make
advancements in the scientific world – and we see that these big game companies
really show their best altruistic sides in connection with the project. Apart from
that, we learnt that from a game designers’ point of view working with citizen
science material is very interesting in itself. They can create new game features
Attila Szantner 109
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based on ‘raw material’ that is intrinsically unpredictable but still have a common
aesthetic.
At this point we have much less information on the gamers’ experience as there
is still no publicly available implementation of the platform in games. We
presented the concept to gamers’ though and the reactions were very positive and
we could get a first-hand impression of how strong the intrinsic motivation to help
science is. And the goal is that with state-of-the-art game design cool and
interesting new features will be added to these games for the gamers’ benefit.
Another lesson learnt, that by providing an API for gaming companies we not
only streamline their processes, but also open up new possibilities to other large
communities of users. One new area that we already started to work with are
Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) that universities all over the world
provide for free for hundreds of thousands of people. In MOOCs we facilitate the
connecting of real world research with education by giving the possibility of
solving citizen science tasks instead of made-up assignments.
The big litmus test of the idea will be the first publicly available
implementation and we hope that the reception will be positive and that science
can benefit from this new tool. In our vision MMOS will connect multiple major
video games with many research project and will become a utility service for
solving citizen science problems.
Notes
1
Henry Sauermann, Chiara Franzoni, ‘Crowd Science User Contribution Patterns
and Their Implications’ PNAS (2015): 679-684; Chris Lintott, Jason Reed, ‘Human
Computation in Citizen Science’, Handbook of Human Computation, ed. Pietro
Michelucci (New York: Springer Science+Business Media, 2013), 153-162
2
Jane McGonigal, ‘Gaming Can Make a Better World’, youtube.com, March 17,
2010, viewed on 30 June 2015,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dE1DuBesGYM.
3
Mathias Uhlén et al., ‘Tissue-Based Map of the Human Proteome,’ Science
(2015): 1260419.
4
Pétur Örn Þórarinsson, Attila Szantner, ’EVE Fanfest 2015: Crowd Science in
EVE Online’, youtube.com, March 30, 2015, viewed on 30 June 2015,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5QLgQCkdoc; John Bedford, ‘How Video
Games Could Save Your Life’, Eurogamer.net, March 23, 2015, viewed on 30
June 2015, http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-03-23-ccp-fanfest-how-
videogames-could-save-your-life; Benedikt Plass-Flessenkämper, Sandro Oda,
‘Rollenspieler helfen der Forschung’, Zeit Online – www.zeit.de, March 27, 2015,
viewed on 30 June 2015,
http://www.zeit.de/digital/games/2015-03/eve-online-citizen-science-spieler-
sollen-zellen-katalogisieren
__________________________________________________________________
5
Vivien Marx, ’Mapping Proteins with Spatial Proteomics’, Nature Methods
(2015): 815–819.
Bibliography
Bedford, John. ‘How Video Games Could Save Your Life’. Eurogamer.net. March
23, 2015. viewed on 30 June 2015. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-03-23-
ccp-fanfest-how-videogames-could-save-your-life.
Lintott, Chris, Reed, Jason. ‘Human Computation in Citizen Science’. Handbook

of Human Computation. ed. Pietro Michelucci. New York: Springer
Science+Business Media, 2013, 153-162.
Marx, Vivien. ’Mapping Proteins with Spatial Proteomics’. Nature Methods

(2015): 815–819
McGonigal, Jane. ‘Gaming Can Make a Better World’. youtube.com. March 17,
2010. viewed on 30 June 2015.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dE1DuBesGYM
Plass-Flessenkämper, Benedikt, Oda, Sandro. ‘Rollenspieler helfen der

Forschung’. Zeit Online – www.zeit.de. March 27, 2015. viewed on 30 June 2015.
http://www.zeit.de/digital/games/2015-03/eve-online-citizen-science-spieler-
sollen-zellen-katalogisieren
Sauermann, Henry, Franzoni, Chiara. ‘Crowd Science User Contribution Patterns

and Their Implications’. PNAS (2015): 679-684
Þórarinsson, Pétur Örn, Szantner, Attila. ’EVE Fanfest 2015: Crowd Science in
EVE Online’. youtube.com. March 30, 2015, viewed on 30 June 2015.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5QLgQCkdoc
Uhlén, Mathias, et al. ‘Tissue-based Map of the Human Proteome’. Science (2015):
1260419
Attila Szantner co-founder of the Swiss start-up Massively Multiplayer Online

Science (MMOS Sàrl). He has 16 years of IT background running his
company Virgo Systems Ltd creating custom-tailored IT solutions. He was a co-
founder of iWiW in 2002, which was the biggest social networking site in Hungary
with 4.7 million users at its height before Facebook.
Is Citizen Science Gaming the Next ‘Level Up’ for Social Impact
Games? Crossing Public Involvement, Technological
Accessibility and Game Design
Alexia Bhéreur-Lagounaris
Abstract
Through the work of designers, educators, philanthropists, health and humanitarian
organizations, there has been a clear rise in Social Impact Games since 2000. These
games, which represent a diversity of cultures, are spearheaded by the annual
Games for Change Conference in New York City, which was in 2015 at its 12th
edition. Every year, it presents different social impact styles and inter-disciplinary
media crossings from politically militant LARP, interactive documentarians as well
as counter-prejudice board games. Researchers can now observe this phenomenon
with political governance concerns since the US Office of Science and Technology
Policy posted a call on their blog asking citizens to propose ‘Games that Can
Change the World’ in December 2013.1 In parallel with these movements, a
context of rapid technological evolution has encouraged increased citizen feedback
and participation in all sorts of accessible and creative ways. Youths now
communicate, interact and have the option to ‘word up’,2 interfere and be more
active regarding online messages thanks to the evolution and mobility of
technology. The gaming world is definitely gaining possibilities for online
participation in this regard, from massive multiplayers games to modding, hacking
and machinima. Since games are now identified tools for values, awareness and
creativity impact and conductors: could projects like Citizen Science be the future
of gaming and social participation? Can the playful attitude of gamers mesh with
global citizenship and volunteer engagement?3 Taking inspiration from Zooniverse,
Citizen Sort, Foldit, and the ongoing MMOS project in the Eve Online game, this
chapter will look more closely at this as yet untapped power to act collectively
from the perspective of motivation by citizens and players to forecast the future of
crossing participatory design disciplines.
Key Words: Social impact games, citizen science, game research, global citizen,
engagement, social commitment, social research, interdisciplinary approach,
empathy.
*****
1. Introduction
The Social Impact Game movement is not an isolated phenomenon. It emerged
in a context of a socio-historical broadening of consciousness regarding impact and
means. Ideas of consequences and effects are also increasing as a part of general
knowledge. It pairs well with technology, transforming our communications and
112 Is Citizen Science Gaming the Next ‘Level Up’ for Social Impact Games?
__________________________________________________________________
information systems and impacting the rise of ‘now know’ consequences like post-
industrial effects on the environment. Our collective intelligence is bubbling away
in a mosaic of ways and it is available to broader circles of citizens, cultures and to
multiple levels of classes. Awareness of social impact takes shape in all types of
manifestations, ranging from community local actions to political protests triggered
by events such as natural disasters and the impact of food policy on our body and
health care systems. Awareness of impact is spread out and heterogeneous. To beg
the question ‘Is Citizen Science Gaming the next “level up” for Social Impact
Games?’, we first need to zoom out and explain this rising bottom-up game
movement, with indices from contemporary social movements, technological
effects on interaction and communication, and engagement in relation to design.
We will then deliberately zoom back in and linger on the finer, intimate role of
intention, motivation and creative re-appropriation as a key to understanding how
games can play a role in social change and how Citizen Science can be used as
leverage.
2. The Rise of Social Impact Games

Serious games, first defined by Clark C. Abt in 1970, wanted to distinguish
themselves from entertainment-only types of video games.4 These types of games
raised debate on the role of fun by emphasizing the purpose and the intention of
games. In this regard, Social Impact Games can be similar. In both cases, intention
is a key component as it travels through the different stages from design concept, to
object, to player. Where it differs from a serious game is that it wishes to impact
not just the player playing the game but has the intention to affect the player to the
extent that he will in his turn affect his surroundings or a cause that is considered
social or humanitarian. The intention turns into ambition in Social Impact Games
where some games hope that players will even act upon their new awareness.
If we look at some of the war-centric Social Impact Games such as Darfur Is
Dying, My Life as a Refugee, Unmanned or This War of Mine, we note that they are
all based on the impact of war like post-trauma, refugees or the impact of war on
civil society. They focus on the repercussions of war and the after-effects of
combat, thereby bringing our attention to the impact of war.
Other so-called Social Impact Games are not so distinct from serious games.
Quandary is one such game, which aims to teach ethics to children. It falls in the
Social Impact Games category because if you add a social interaction, the impact
of the game’s message integrates itself deeper. Two or more players can discuss
which decision to make, requiring them to collectively consider their own and
others’ opinions, and decide together what is an opinion, or a fact or a possible
solution. Through this communal reflexion they process the lesson and make it
easier to recall the same type of thinking in social interactions without the game.
From these examples, we have begun to define how impact is integrated in
Social Impact Games. However, many game researchers note that the social impact
Alexia Bhéreur-Lagounaris 113
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of any games has always been present. Humans play and have always been
playing. Researchers Flanagan and Sicart critique values, ethics and morals in all
sorts of games, validating the fact that messages have always been present in
games, even when labelled as ‘entertainment’ rather than ‘serious’ game or ‘social
impact’ game. In entertainment games, ideology and propaganda are more hidden
to the player; whereas, in Social Impact Games values are addressed more directly.
Is the message always clear? Perhaps not (and that is worthy of another paper) but
it’s definitely not done in a manipulative or seductively hidden way, but rather in a
more persuasive and suggestive manner. In this regard, Social Impact Games don’t
want to trick ideology into their players. They let them know. The shift of culture
from ‘entertainment games’ with attention on escaping reality to being aware of
reality adds to the sum of the intention to care for others and the awareness of
impact.
3. Citizen Science and Its New Gaming Branch

Citizen Science, in its simplest definition, is voluntary citizen participation in
professional research project. It is composed of ‘crowd sourcing, data collection,
data qualification, photograph tagging, open access systems and quantitative
evidence that is useful for scientists’.5 Some participants may be experts; however,
for most projects, the citizens are non-professionals. Some examples of ongoing
online projects are Zooniverse, Citizen Sort, and Foldit. Other projects are event-
based including ‘World Water Monitoring day’, which has participants monitoring
the water next to their home on a specific day.6
Since Citizen Science projects are volunteer-based, without the dedication and
free will of its participants, there would be no projects at all. As a result,
motivation in Citizen Science is important to analyse. Citizen involvement in
scientific projects brings players closer to the subject being studied and can also be
experienced as a learning process. However, the motivation of citizens to dedicate
their time and attention has many drivers. Research conducted on the motivation
characteristics of citizens has offered multiple reasons including: ‘it’s a way to
participate’, ‘it’s a learning process’, ‘it’s fun, ‘it’s a teaching tool’, ‘to meet others
with similar interests’ and ‘being happy to help’.7 The most common motivation
was ‘altruism’ and the ‘desire to contribute’.8 In other words, the participants’
motivation is most commonly linked to empathy for the cause and the impact they
can have on the project.
4. The Context of Rapid Technological Evolution

The evolution of technology is interrelated with our media and communication
systems and it impacts the way we receive information, share it, interact with
others, think and speak our minds in our daily lives. The shift in media over the last
50 years, from television to the Web-based social media of today, can be
__________________________________________________________________
represented by the classic Jakobson diagram (used by Shannon and Weaver)
communication theory.9
The diagram shows the direction from sender to receiver with an arrow running
from left to right. This represented the reality when television and radio were the
dominant forms of media in 1963. Information was sent and the receiver could
only receive it. We could not interact with the television and the speaker. However,
in 2015, the communication process has shifted. The message can still go from
sender to receiver but in social media, such forms as Reddit, Twitter or Facebook,
allows for a wider pool of people to receive the message and reply to it within
seconds. Other people’s thoughts and comments can be read and interrelated to a
broader process very rapidly. In this way, collective intelligence is developing with
increasing rapidity because many different individuals can reply and the group can
benefit even if they are only witnessing the reactions and replies to a sum of the
thoughts expressed. The arrow between sender and receiver is no longer a straight
line but rather more like a pinball or a ricochet or even several bouncing arrows.
Web-based social media of today, compared to the television of thirty years ago,
makes us practice speaking up and replying to any given message. Even if we are
not blind to the dangers of the filter effect and the personalization of what message
is sent to us in today’s ‘Google selective era’,10 we can positively express, copy,
paste, blog, reply, upvote or downvote, screen capture, film our own videos,
respond to others’ videos, add comments on top of images and add new audio
tracks. These practices are not only a communication activity but also a social
expression exercise: we are all practising to speak up. Perhaps a political one, as
Breton points out: ‘Can you call a society that does not allow all its members the
means to be citizens, meaning to truly have the chance to speak their minds, a
veritable democracy?’.11
5. Design, Interaction and Social Innovation

Theses social network practices leads us to our next subject: re-appropriation or
the use of something that is already there but where we add our own ‘two cents’ (or
more). It can be done in an infinite number of variations as creative remixes. A
simple example is the trending virally transmitted ‘Meme’, easy to make. More
elaborate ones would be on the YouTube channel offering all sorts of re-
appropriations. They are called parodies, YouTube poop, mashup, montage
parodies, vapour wave, tuglike, 4chan, etc. They use a message as a base content to
recreate something else.
For the sake of this analysis, the YouTube platform is also becoming a huge
source for sharing ‘how-to’ videos where people are filming themselves and
sharing their abilities, their knowledge, expertise and experience with open access
for all. These people are freely just wanting to help by sharing their knowledge of
cooking, gardening, decorating, renovating, etc., and for many, without
commercial relations or money-related contributions.
__________________________________________________________________
Ezio Mazini, in his prescient book: Design, When Everybody Designs, An
Introduction to Design for Social Innovation remarks that ‘many products are now
offered to the general public in an openly incomplete version (…) to harvest the
improvements suggested by users who will therefore effectively become co-
designers.’12 His view (and the many examples in his book) on design echoes
projects such as those of Citizen Science. His ideas on the ‘socio-technical resilient
system’13 are also related to modding regarding game thinking. In some aspects,
Mazini’s ideas fit well with the youth of today which already welcomes creative
feedback and re-appropriation. Jane McGonigal, in her 2010 bestseller, invites us
to use what is good in games to help reality and the element of feedback is but one
form of this. As previously mentioned, we are already exercising this through our
media interactions and the transformation is already well underway. As she says
97% of youth play games, this integration has already occurred. The openness of a
product, game or information is already in its continuous phase.
6. Motivation, Feedback and Measuring Impact

The studies are starting to be tangible and have presented results:
‘A 2014 Psychological Science study, reported that when kids

play video games that encourage cooperative behavior, they
show more caring and empathy in the real world. Another study
(…) found that kids who took part in a cooperation-centered
game were more likely to help a person who'd dropped
something and intervene if they saw someone being harassed.
And earlier this year, participants in Germany who played story-
based video games in a University of Freiburg study showed
progress in understanding others’ emotions—a skill that
researchers believe could be useful to kids on the autism
spectrum.’14
Psychology has multiple theories on what motivates us as humans. One of them

is the Self-Determination Theory (SDT)15 which highlights many crossover
disciplines such as using games in the educational system. However, if this theory
works for learning, can this theoretical tool also be used for other means? SDT has
three major characteristics: autonomy, mastery and relatedness. These categories
are also seen in Citizen Science research and they are also a fundamental part of
the motivation of volunteers. ‘Wanting to help’ is a type of relatedness, whereas
‘curiosity and learning something new’16 is more similar to mastery.
Another theory familiar to gamers comes from positive psychologist
Csíkszentmihályi.17 His flow theory is another interesting tool for scientists looking
to create for Citizen Science projects or Social Impact gaming. Some of the
characteristics of this flow theory include: being immersed in the activity, very
__________________________________________________________________
intense concentration and a feeling of surfing a satisfying edge between ability and
challenge. If these characteristics are true in moments of gaming and if the game
involves helping tag photographs or identify a pattern in a productive way, then we
see how a game can be beneficial to Citizen Science projects. If participants and
citizens make up the workforce and are part of its ‘collective capital’,18 the
specific, intrinsic, intimate and personal needs of citizens to be motivated should
also be considered. If altruism, empathy and social good continues to be a concern
that requires development as we awaken and evolve, then citizens will want to
express it through the filters of their passions and their individual motivations via
freedom, autonomy, learning, ‘levelling up’ of knowledge and skills, relating,
caring and making an impact on others as others impact them. This is the bridge
between Citizen Science gaming and Social Impact Games.
In the ongoing Massively Multiple Online Science (MMOS) project, scientists
are giving open access to citizens to explore and tag immune fluorescence micro
cellular images. The MMOS project leaders asked Eve Online lead designers to
help create ways to link these images to sci-fi games that have been active for
eleven years. One of the particularities of Eve Online is that they are a massive
multiplayer game that incorporates autonomy and creative possibility with re-
appropriation and they have a very open etiquette and protocol. Players build
worlds and shape the environment the way they want. This means they shape the
world in ways that the first game designers could not have imagined themselves.
Players unite, found corporations and make their own play. Players are not just co-
designers; they make their own game within the game.
7. Levelling Up Social Impact Games

Currently, the Social Impact Game movement is asking for help to measure its
impact. Platforms are born19 to answer community needs by asking designers and
academics to share their results and discoveries regarding how to measure impact
and data. Many challenges still await, including the diffuse aspect of impacts, the
mosaic effect of impacts, the length of time it takes for an individual to become
aware and act upon this revelation as well as the person’s social influences before
and after playing the game, and whether playing the game is done on a one-time
basis or over an extended period. If the game play is conducted over an extended
period, what other activities are they in contact with, similar to the subject? The
challenges are numerous. Measurements can be difficult to determine for the
simple reason that a person does not experience awareness in an isolated manner.
We all impact one another all the time, whether it is done consciously or not.
Conversations with other people will have an impact as well as books read by the
player that month (or year) and other realizations made anywhere and anytime. Is
the player already an active participant in their community? Is the player
geographically far from the social subject of the game? How foreign is their age,
culture or language? Impacts can take many forms: Eureka moment or by
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continuous threat fed by many other elements other than a specific game. In one
study measuring impact of the game Spent on teenagers, the empirical method of
the study contributed to the impact in a distinctly overarching way. Data was
collected from a total of 5139 teenagers taken from one control group and two
experimental groups. What they found was that ‘students who played the game
Spent sustained a significantly higher score on the Affective Learning Scale (ALS)
and the Attitude Towards Homeless Inventory (ATHI)’. 20
Aside from addressing feedback and perhaps integrating it in directly in the
game, the measurement of a Social Impact Game could also use other techniques
borrowed from Citizen Science such as incorporating the tagging elements to
create data as the player is in the game. For example, if we wanted to create a
Social Impact Game that teaches how to compost, we could add an option to link
the players’ calendar and add a notification for the next season to examine their
compost on a specific day and take a picture. They could then send it to a data
collection site, earn imaginative points and become a mayor on their virtual street
if many pictures are sent. In this way, measurement could be countable, data could
be collectable and mastery could be created for the player and globally, they are
contributing to reduced waste. What the player does with their compost could also
be rewarded and linked to other real-world players, through a community compost
program and measurements can be further taken on a specific day and the impact
of the game could be measured by scientists. This establishes a win-win situation
between scientific projects and the measurements of impacts made by the game.
8. Conclusion
Crossing the knowledge and needs of different disciplines seems to be possible,
especially when the context is closely related in intention, motivation and effect as
seen with this chapter. Coming together in complementary matters seems to be an
increasing necessity for problem-solving in our contemporary world and although
communications expertise and the skills of team-building in innovative ways was
not discussed in this chapter, we can easily foresee many challenges in the desire to
co-design and cross-research. Overall, the focus on the established motivation
linked with perseverance of good-will is truly a centrepiece for creating healthy
communities, whether it is on the behalf of this research, for designing a new
Social Impact Game, to advise other scientists regarding the betterment of game
design for research helped by citizens or for the overall societies. With the
continuous democratization of technology accessibility, if the player’s freedom is
considered and welcomed as a key component, if the intention for common good is
respected, even when the solutions are not necessarily easy, the desire to create a
better world is already taking a bolder step toward a more positive and constructive
movement. A direction some say we need to start taking with greater, if not
exponentially, urgency.
__________________________________________________________________
Notes
1
Mark Deloura, ‘Games that Can Change the World’, White House (blog),
December 13, 2013, accessed 21 December 2013,
https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/12/13/games-can-change-world.
2 Slang expression taken from the 1986 Hit Funk Song ‘Word Up !’, meaning ‘to
speak your mind’ or ‘say what you have to say.’

3
Nathan Prestopnik and Kevin Crowston, ‘“Gaming for (Citizen) Science”:
Exploring Motivation and Data Quality in the Context of Crowdsourced Science
through the Design and Evaluation of Social-Computational System’ (paper
presented at the ‘Computing for Citizen Science’ Workshop at the IEEE Seventh
International Conference, Stockholm, December 5-8, 2011).
4
Ute Ritterfeld, Michael Cody, and Peter Vorderer, eds., ‘Forward’ to Serious
Games: Mechanisms and Effects (New York: Routledge, 2009), xiv-xvi.
5
Henry Sauermann and Chiara Franzoni, ‘Crowd Science User Contribution
Patterns and Their Implications’, PNAS 112.3 (2015): 679-684.
6
Monitorwater.org, accessed 2 June 2015, http://www.monitorwater.org/.
7
Jordan Raddick, et al., ‘Galaxy Zoo: Motivations of Citizen Scientists’,
Astronomy Education Review 09 (2009): 9.
8
Prestopnik and Crowston, ‘Gaming for (Citizen) Science’.
9
‘Shannon and Weaver Model of Communication’, Communicationtheory.org,
accessed 3 June 2015,
http://communicationtheory.org/shannon-and-weaver-model-of-communication/
10
Eli Pariser, The Filter Bubble: What the Internet Is Hiding from You (London:
Penguin Press, 2011).
11
Philippe Breton, ‘Preface’ to L’argumentation dans la communication (France:
Collection Repères Vol 204, 1996), 3.
12
Enzio Manzini, Design, When Everybody Designs - An Introduction to Design
for Social Innovation (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2015), 20.
13
Ibid., 21.
14
Elizabeth Svoboda, ‘The Rise of the “Gaming for Good” Movement’, Newsweek,
accessed 9 June 2015, http://www.newsweek.com/rise-gaming-good-movement-
340198.
15
Christopher P. Niemec and Richard M. Ryan, ‘Autonomy, Competence, and
Relatedness in the Classroom’, Theory and Research in Education (New York:
SAGE Publication, 2009), 133-144.
16
Greg Newman and Andrea Wiggins, Alycia Crall, Eric Graham, Sarah Newman,
and Kevin Crowston, ‘The Future of Citizen Science: Emerging Technologies and
Shifting Paradigms’, Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 10 (2012): 298-
304.
17
Mihaly Csíkszentmihályi and Jeanne Nakamura, Flow Theory and Research
(Oxford Handbook Online, 2009),
__________________________________________________________________
http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195187243.001.00
01/oxfordhb-9780195187243-e-018
18
Greg Newman, Andrea Wiggins, Alycia Crall, Eric Graham, Sarah Newman, and
Kevin Crowston, ‘The Future of Citizen Science: Emerging Technologies and
Shifting Paradigms’, The Ecological Society of America, Front Ecol. Environ
(2012): 298-304.
19
Benjamin Stokes, Nicole Walden, Gerad O'Shea, Francesco Nasso, Giancarlo
Mariutto, and Asi Burak, ‘Report #1: Fragmentation’, Impact with Games,
accessed on 20 May 2015, http://gameimpact.net/.
20
Dana Ruggiero, ‘The Effect of a Persuasive Social Impact Game on Affective
Learning and Attitude’, Computers in Human Behavior 45 (2015): 213–22.
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York: Harper and Row, 1990. http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/
oxfordhb/9780195187243.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780195187243-e-018.
Flanagan, Mary and Helen Nissenbaum. Values at Play in Digital Games.

Cambridge: MIT Press, 2014.
Fogg, BJ. Persuasive Technology: Using Computers to Change What We Think

and Do. Amsterdam: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 2003.
McGonigal, Jane. Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They
Can Change the World. New York: Penguin Group, 2011.
Manzini, Enzio. Design, When Everybody Designs: An Introduction to Design for

Social Innovation. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2015.
Newman, Greg and Andrea Wiggins, Alycia Crall, Eric Graham, Sarah Newman,
and Kevin Crowston. ‘The Future of Citizen Science: Emerging Technologies and
Shifting Paradigms’. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 10 (2012): 298-
304. 2012.
__________________________________________________________________
Pariser, Eli. The Filter Bubble: What the Internet Is Hiding from You. London:
Penguin Press, 2011.
Prestopnik, Nathan and Kevin Crowston. ‘“Gaming for (Citizen) Science”:

Exploring Motivation and Data Quality in the Context of Crowdsourced Science
through the Design and Evaluation of Social-Computational System’. Paper
presented at the ‘Computing for Citizen Science’ Workshop at the IEEE Seventh
International Conference. Stockholm: 5-8 December 2011.
Raddick, Jordan, et al. ‘Galaxy Zoo: Motivations of Citizen Scientists’. Astronomy

Education Review. (2013).
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More Effective Training and Education’. Journal of Computational Science 5.3
(2014): 471-481
Ryan, Richard M., Edward L. Deci. ‘Self-Determination Theory and the

Facilitation of Intrinsic Motivation, Social Development, and Well-Being’.
American Psychologist 55.1 (2000): 68-78.
Ruggiero, Dana. ‘The Effect of a Persuasive Social Impact Game on Affective

Learning and Attitude’. Computers in Human Behavior 45 (2015): 213-22.
Sauermann, Henry and Chiara Franzoni. ‘Crowd Science User Contribution

Patterns and Their Implications’. PNAS 112.3 (2015): 679-684.
Schrank, Brian. Avant-Garde Videogames: Playing with Technoculture.

Cambridge: MIT Press, 2015.
Sicart, Miguel. Beyond Choices: The Design of Ethical GamePlay. Cambridge:

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Performance of Human Groups’. Science 330.6004 (2010): 686-688.
Alexia Bhéreur-Lagounaris has a multidisciplinary path, from Contemporary

Dance to Artistic Scout for Cirque du Soleil, to Media Research to Event Curator.
Since 2010, She coordinates a Multimedia Lab at the INRS and is a M.Sc.
Candidate at University of Montreal in Social Impact Games.
Understanding the Fanboy Culture: Their Place and Role within
the Games Industry
Bradley James and B.D. Fletcher

Abstract
Within Video Game culture very few slights carry as much weight and disrespect
as being called a ‘Fanboy’. Few understand what this term means and fewer have
explored the role this type of consumer plays in the gaming industry, let alone their
significant cultural impact. This chapter seeks to understand and define what a
Fanboy is using various social and psychological theories and discusses their use
within the industry. This is done via analysing recent events and new media
technologies in conjunction with multiple gaming franchises recent releases. It then
evaluates the image of the Fanboy in popular culture, how it is has changed thanks
to new methods of engagement with new strategies and brand types while
acknowledging their limitations within their wider social cultures across the world.
Key Words: Video game culture, fanboy, brand loyalty, Youtube, cultural impact,
game studies, social culture.
*****
1. Introduction
The term Fanboy is thrown around a lot within various social groups;
especially when it comes to video games. Yet for how much it is mentioned, few
seem to understand what it means. The official definition is that of a male/female
fan, especially one who is obsessive about comics, music, film, or science fiction.
Note the use of the word obsessive; companies naturally love when their
consumers become obsessive of a product as it then becomes that much easier to
sell to them. They view the brand relationship with a biased stance leading to a
devaluation of any alternative.
By examining a brand/product to see why consumers become so attached, S.
Fournier found that one of the most important factors is that the consumer creates a
relationship with their product.1 After numerous case studies with various subjects,
Fournier concluded the following; love and passion were two keywords that the
subjects used to describe their preferred brands. The subjects also displayed high
levels of commitment, interdependence and intimacy (in such a way that they
could be compared to a physical relationship) towards the products, leading to a
summation that the research undertaken has implications for areas outside the
consumer-brand domain (for marketing etc.). This could be done via use of a
model of brand relationship quality (and its effects on relationship stability)
generated from the results of Fournier’s work.
122 Understanding the Fanboy Culture
__________________________________________________________________
In the stance of someone becoming a Fanboy, thus taking the consumer-brand
idea even further, we have a delicate situation to consider. As discussed by S.
Locke, being a Fanboy can also be used for self-description, one used in social
circles to assert control over social activity(s) and/or as a shield against varying
levels of critique.2 Locke examined that his subjects’ willingness to grasp at what
most would consider a paradox and outwardly declare themselves Fanboys, as in
the case of comic book readers, was and still is a revolutionary action. The
question we should then ask ourselves, before developing a Fanboy, is the
following: Should we? Are Fanboys a good thing?
There is no denying that the gaming industry has had an extremely bad
reputation, with many studies and cases focusing on the more negative side of what
the medium can produce. The American Psychological Association’s stance on this
subject, to this is day, is that games increase aggressive behaviour and thoughts,
angry feelings, physiological arousal, and decreases helpful behaviour while also
encouraging violence towards women, rape myth acceptance and anti-female
attitudes (as based on numerous studies collected by the association).3
When examining the aforementioned area, the same words we see from
Fournier’s work appear again but are twisted into something more grotesque. Love
and passion become obsession and addiction, while loyalty and skill becomes
disgrace and inability. The mere act of caring about something so much to even
start to become a dedicated fan seems to mean that you have to walk a dangerous
and easily crossed line which supposedly leads to a more sinister path.4 While it
would be helpful to insist that the previous works are unfounded, the argument
does in fact ring true in some cases. Numerous events in recent years have revealed
the darker side of what was initially thought to be the dark side of gamers to the
public, being reported in various social media across the internet. However, on
closer inspection, the crux of the decadence stemmed from the Fanboys
surrounding the media in relation with the incident.
It would seem then that Fanboys of video games are much more susceptible to
creating an emotional attachment to their preferred media and thus leads them to
become the perceived aggressive stereotype that, originally, studies showed them
to be. The levels of depravity that gamers can sink to are astonishing and a
negative attitude or frustration fuelled by the unrelenting desire to defend one’s
love is a scary combination. It should be noted here that this is only a small
percentage of gaming consumers; the Fanboy status is not something that players
are labelled with easily and this behaviour is constantly associated with them. In
recent years more studies have started to show that, among the average gamer,
games in fact increase helpful prosocial behaviour.5 Other studies conclude that
video games do not increase or reduce prosocial behaviour as they fail to replicate
results based on previous studies in the area.6 Some studies make the case that
games only cause aggression to players with a pre-existing disposition, whether
psychological or physical; something that a defined Fanboy is seen to have.7
Bradley James and B.D. Fletcher 123
__________________________________________________________________
Based on these discoveries, we can propose the following: the key factor in
creating a Fanboy is making an engaging and, whether it is perceived to be or
actually is, in depth product which allows the consumer to be lost in the medium,
so much so that they are affected by it to an extent which could be deemed almost
unhealthy. It is at this stage that, along with some pandering and appropriate
marketing, you have all the ingredients to formulate the perfect consumer; ready
and willing to buy your products based on a warped view of your previous
endeavours.
2. The New Revolution

In recent years there has been an astounding rise of YouTube personalities
interacting with the games industry in terms of gameplay showcases, reviews and
satirical shows. These online productions have reached such notoriety now that
they actively affect the industry that they initially were a part of; one of the most
prominent examples being PewDiePie.8 Real name Felix Kjellberg, PewDiePie is
the most influential YouTuber ever with, as of 2015, well over 33 million
subscribers to his channel and an avid fan base, referred to as his Bro Army.
As you can expect, with over 30 million viewers his videos garner a lot of
weight in fanbases and the general populous. Using Diffusion of Innovation theory,
we can see that PewDiePie is defined as an innovator; he can do and play what he
wants on his channel with little to no risk and thus is ahead of social curves.9 This
leads to a surge of other popular personalities picking up the games PewDiePie
plays (thus making them ‘Early Adopters’; other prominent but less risk-taking
types) and their fans being showcased the game(s) as well. This trend continues
and suddenly a large amount of consumers are playing or talking about the product
across the whole spectrum of consumer types.
These YouTubers are now far more influential than the average celebrity and as
such, create a new variation of Fanboy, one that is just as vocal and loyal but also
willing to change and absorb anything that their idols play.10 Perhaps the best
examples of this phenomenon are Skate 3and Flappy Bird.11 Skate 3 was initially
released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2010 and received average scores
from reviewers.12 Since then it remained an average sports game title for the last
generation consoles and ceased production after a year or so. Suddenly, in 2014,
PewDiePie released a series of videos of him playing Skate 3 in which he
showcased glitches, bugs and general amusing sections of the title. This suddenly
caused a huge demand for the game from his fans, causing video game retailers to
request the game to be re-produced.13 The game then sat in the top 40 charts all
through the rest of the year, an astonishing feat for a 4 year old title.
But perhaps the best example is the aforementioned Flappy Bird, a poorly made
yet addictive title released on smartphones in May 2013. It remained on the app
store for months until January 2014 when PewDiePie uploaded ‘FLAPPY BIRD –
DON’T PLAY THIS GAME’.14 Because of this video, the game received a
__________________________________________________________________
massive popularity spike and, subsequently, thousands of downloads thrusting the
game into ridiculous levels of popularity. This spike meant that the creators of the
game ended up earning an average of $50,000 per day via in-app advertising after
50 million downloads (as of February 2014).15
However, but when referring back to Fournier’s conclusion, that love and
passion are key to creating a purchasable product, you notice that this is not here.
These titles were not bought out of a love for the product but out of the love of it
from another. From this we can conclude that these online personalities turn
themselves into a beloved brand which then, via a devoted consumer base, can
funnel said consumers towards specific products which then, by sheer numbers,
create an unsettling demand for said product. Flappy Bird was and is not a good
game, receiving mediocre reviews and being obnoxiously difficult.16 But, thanks to
its fame, it still commanded such obsession that even when the game was removed
from the app stores due to its obscene popularity, some consumers ended up
purchasing phones from eBay with the game installed on it for prices up to and
including $900.17 This is a type of loyalty that cannot be ignored or explained away
as a one off; the admiration replaces the love that Fournier initially said was
needed.18
3. The Fanboy’s Place in the Industry

We have established two key things: a Fanboy is created when the love of a
product or brand becomes so intense that the subject in question believes in the
product regardless of quality or criticism, and Fanboys create a large demand for
products like the ones they have become engaged in. There is at this point no
denying the temptation to create this type of consumer.
Based on the previous points, companies across the industry have already been
employing various strategies to create this fan type. One of the more popular
approaches unconsciously drew from the YouTuber method: making a personality
sell the product. A big example of this involved the recent Metal Gear Solid titles,
their designer Hideo Kojima and his subsequent company, a subsidiary of
Konami.19 Kojima Productions is a giant advertisement in itself for the games it is
attached to; fans know of Hideo Kojima and his work and are therefore more
willing to buy brands this person is attached too.
While the Kojima name draws in the consumer this does not necessarily
differentiate them from the average fan; what does are the products themselves.
The Metal Gear series in particular has been generally well received across various
titles but what is relevant here are the titles that were considered ‘worse’ games,
namely the Metal Gear Acid series and the more recent Metal Gear Solid V:
Ground Zeroes.20 These titles were different from the average Metal Gear game
and this initially could cause a problem; naturally, change is not something that a
consumer often likes. As discussed by A. Bandura, people like to have control over
__________________________________________________________________
their own lives, change is too chaotic and control is preferred ‘…because it
provides countless personal benefits’.21
The differences caused these games to be reviewed rather harshly from various
online sites which in turn caused rifts within the fan base of the series. Fans of the
series did not mind the changes; they believed in Kojima, and due to this strong
attachment, fought against the reasonable arguments.22 This phenomenon can be
explained by Bass who stated that the probability that an individual will adopt the
innovation or change (with a product) is linear with respect to the number of
previous adopters; since so many fans believed in the brand, any change did not
and could not matter.23
This is how these fans actively affect the industry; they force, unknowingly or
not, developers into making decisions to please them. This results in a variety of
problems and is prevalent in larger companies as well. The Sonic the Hedgehog
series is a perfect example of everything previously discussed. The Sonic the
Hedgehog character has been around since 1991 and since that time has amassed a
large and extremely dedicated fan base of players from around the world. This is
largely due to its rather strong starting set of games; Sonic the Hedgehog 1, 2, 3,
Sonic and Knuckles and Sonic CD, games that are still played and loved to this
day.24 These titles solidified Sonic in the minds of gamers and created that
important emotional attachment to SEGA, mostly due to the infancy of the games
industry, but still a strong connection nonetheless.
The rivalry to the already popular Mario Bros. series from Nintendo was the
final push to make sure that these two characters and their games became not only
gaming icons, but cultural icons worldwide. However, during the advent of three
dimensional gaming, these games and their admirers had a drastic change due to
changes in gameplay and platforms.
This started an unpopular trend, coined as the Sonic Cycle by fans, of Sonic
games being highly anticipated when announced and steadily more hated until
release when the games would then be slammed, regardless of quality and/or value.
While this behaviour could be seen as a more negative state for fans to exist in, it is
in reality something brought on by the Fanboys. The wish of a ‘perfect’ Sonic
game on announcement created a high level of expectation and when the game
could not match this level it was perceived as bad.
The most apt example of this phenomenon can be seen in the most recent title
in the Sonic series, Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric.25 On its initial announcement, this
title excited and frightened fans in equal measures but the hype was still present.
As more of the game has been shown, the Fanboys, as well as the rest of the fan
base, tore the game apart from every angle; so much so that all expectations of the
game to be good hit rock bottom.26 Nevertheless, throughout all the criticism, these
Sonic titles still sell well because of their loud and critical fan base; keeping the
standards low and anticipation high sells the product - fuelled partly by the love-
hate relationship with fans.27
__________________________________________________________________
4. Conclusions
It is undisputed that obsessive and passionate fans actively change and
influence the industry; they are a continuous source of not only revenue but also
advertisement and design. The usage of this consumer type is a fair one.
Companies need to make money to continue to produce their product. However, it
is obvious that the games industry is underusing these players potential. As
theorised by J. McGonigal:
Gamers are the most collaborative people on earth… as a result

of the industry’s relentless focus on innovating new ways to
cooperate, coordinate and cocreate, many gamers are developing
a new set of collaboration superpowers that transcend what they
are capable of doing in the real world.28
This view is supported by M. Flanagan who concludes that:
Games are an exercise in social engineering mechanisms for such

social mechanisms are inherent in the game goals interaction
styles and architecture of each and every game … we can help
make systems that change things.29
With this in mind, it raises a question; due to gaming’s strange cultural

standpoint, why has it never been a priority to change the general populous’ view
on game cultures? In Western countries, games and the people who play them are
still seen in a negative light. This is highlighted via the Gamergate controversy. In
an extremely prominent piece published during the event, L. Alexander confirms:
(Game culture) is a petri dish of people who know so little about

how human social interaction and professional life works that
they can concoct online ‘wars’ about social justice or ‘game
journalism ethics’, straight-faced, and cause genuine human
consequences. Because of video games.30
This attitude is not exclusive to the Western territories. The Japanese term
Otaku generally incurs the same treatment as Fanboy; being a socially inept
individual with a passion which few understand, in this case, incorporating gaming,
anime and manga. As M. Hills describes, these terms, Otaku and Fanboy, have
become devalued in culture due to their negative implications calling it ‘an attempt
to naturalise fan identities by implying that fandom is a transnational/transcultural
experience’.31
It is now we hit an impasse: Fanboys are a natural phenomenon. They cannot
be effectively manufactured (even with assistance) but are created at a consistent
__________________________________________________________________
rate enough to generate cultural noise which, in turn, gives the Fanboy a negative
image but also drives sales. Something has to give and it would seem, based on
pre-existing cultural norms, the general populous will buckle first. The advent of
all popular media types, radio, television and film, during their early stages were
(and still are) surrounded by criticism but now are considered normal. M.
Csikszentmihalyi et al concludes that visual media (focusing on television) which
give us events to absorb, command ‘undivided attention and we respond almost as
if we were there’ and that after a while this becomes part of the sameness of the
vast television landscape’.32 This is furthered by G. Gerbner et al who concludes
that visual media has become a common symbolic environment thanks to growing
up and living with it, and consequently creates ‘the cultivation of stable, resistant
and widely shared assumptions, images and conceptions reflecting the institutional
characteristics and interest of the medium itself’.33
Perhaps then it is the destiny of gaming Fanboys to eventually be accepted into
culture as naturally as other types are. However we cannot be sure as, like other
visual media industries; games are still too young to have had the cultural
acceptance that seems to be inevitable. The only question left is to discover what
types of games will generate the fans that will eventually define the cultures they
will fit into. Further examination into the specifics of worldwide gaming cultures
would need to be developed to see where this consumer type could fit in and how,
if at all, they could affect it.
Notes
1
Susan Fournier, ‘Consumers and Their Brands: Developing Relationship Theory
in Consumer Research’, Journal of Consumer Research 24 (1998): 343-352,
viewed 15 January 2015,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/10.1086/209515.pdf?acceptTC=true&jpdConfi
rm=true&.
2
Simon Locke, ‘“Fanboy” as a Revolutionary Category’, Journal of Audience &
Reception Studies 9.2 (2012): 835-854, Viewed 15 January 2015,
http://www.participations.org/Volume%209/Issue%202/Locke.pdf.
3
American Psychological Association, Resolution on Violence in Video Games
and Interactive Media (2005), Viewed 15 January 2015,
http://www.apa.org/about/policy/interactive-media.pdf.
4
Paul Dean, ‘Tropes vs Women in Video Games: Why It Matters’, IGN, 31st May
2013, Viewed 15 January 2015,
http://uk.ign.com/articles/2013/05/31/tropes-vs-women-in-video-games-why-it-
matters.
5
Douglas A. Gentile et al., ‘The Effects of Prosocial Video Games on Prosocial
Behaviors: International Evidence from Correlational, Longitudinal, and
__________________________________________________________________
Experimental Studies’, Pers Soc Psychol Bull. 35 (2009): 752-763, Viewed

January 2015, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2678173/pdf/nihms-
104172.pdf.
6
Morgan J. Tear and Mark Nielson, ‘Failure to Demonstrate that Playing Violent
Video Games Diminishes Prosocial Behavior’, PLOS ONE Journal DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0068382 (2013) Viewed 15 January 2015,
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0068382.
7
Patrick M. Markey and Charlotte N. Markey, ‘Vulnerability to Violent Video
Games: A Review and Integration of Personality Research’, Review of General
Psychology 14 (2010): 82-91, Viewed 15 January 2015,
http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/gpr-14-2-82.pdf.
8
‘PewDiePie’, Youtube, Viewed 15 January 2015,
https://www.youtube.com/user/PewDiePie.
9
Everett Rogers, Diffusion of Innovations (London: Simon and Schuster
International, 2003).
10
Brian Crecente, ‘PewDiePie Isn't Just a Popular Let's Play YouTuber, He's the
$4M-a-Year King of YouTube’, Polygon, June 17th 2014, viewed 15 January 2015,
http://www.polygon.com/2014/6/17/5817118/how-much-does-pewdiepie-make;
Charlie Hall, ‘Pewdiepie “More Influential” among Teens than Katy Perry and
Hollywood Elite’, Polygon, August 7th 2014, Viewed 15 January 2014,
http://www.polygon.com/2014/8/7/5980019/pewdiepie-more-popular-among-
teens-than-traditional-celebrities.
11
Skate 3, British Columbia, Canada: EA Black Box, 2010. PlayStation 3, Xbox
360; Flappy Bird, Hanoi, Vietnam: GEARS Studios, 2013. iOS, Android, Amazon
Fire TV.
12
‘Skate 3 Playstation 3 Metascore’, Metacritic, Viewed 15 January 2015,
http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-3/skate-3.
13
Christopher Dring, ‘How Pewdiepie Fired Skate 3 Back into the Charts’,
MCVUK, August 26th 2014, Viewed 15 January 2015,
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/how-pewdiepie-fired-skate-3-back-into-the-
charts/0137447.
14
‘Flappy Bird – Don’t Play this Game’, Youtube, Viewed 15 January 2015,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQz6xhlOt18.
15
Eliss Hamburger, ‘Indie Smash Hit “Flappy Bird” Racks Up $50K per Day in
Ad Revenue’, The Verge, February 5th 2014, viewed 15 January 2015,
http://www.theverge.com/2014/2/5/5383708/flappy-bird-revenue-50-k-per-day-
dong-nguyen-interview.
16
‘Flappy Bird iOS Metascore’, Metacritic, Viewed 15 January 2015,
__________________________________________________________________
http://www.metacritic.com/game/ios/flappy-bird; Mike Bertha, ‘Everything You

Need to Know about Your New Favourite Cell Phone Game, “Flappy Bird”’,
Philly, January 30th 2014, Viewed 15 January 2015,
http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/trending/Flappy-Bird-app-game-iPhone-
Android-obsessed-cheats-impossible-Ironpants.html.
17
Vince Ingentio, ‘Flappy Bird Creator to Take Game Down Tomorrow’, IGN,
February 8th 2014, Viewed 15 January 2015,
http://uk.ign.com/articles/2014/02/08/flappy-bird-creator-to-take-game-down-
tomorrow; Dave Their, ‘“Flappy Bird” Price Skyrocketing on eBay’, Forbes,
February 10th 2014, Viewed 15 January 2015,
http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidthier/2014/02/10/flappy-bird-price-skyrocketing-
on-ebay/; Harry McCracken, ‘Where to Get Flappy Bird: On eBay, for $900.
Cheap!’, TIME, February 9th 2014, Viewed 15 January 2015,
http://time.com/6073/where-to-get-flappy-bird/.
18
Fournier, Consumers and Their Brands.
19
Gamespot Staff, ‘Hideo Kojima Exclusive Q&A’, Gamespot, May 20th 2005,
Viewed 15 January 2015,
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/hideo-kojima-exclusive-qanda/1100-6126180/.
20
Metal Gear Acid, Tokyo, Japan: Konami Computer Entertainment Japan, 2005.
PlayStation Portable; Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, Tokyo, Japan: Kojima
Productions, 2014. PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Microsoft
Windows.
21
Albert Bandura, ‘Personal and Collective Efficacy in Human Adaptation and
Change’, Advances In Psychological Science, Volume 1: Social, Personal and
Cultural Aspects: Social, Personal and Cultural Aspects, ed. John G. Adair, David
Bélanger and Kenneth L. Dion (East Sussex: Psychology Press, 1998), 51-71.
22
‘Metal Gear Acid PSP Metascore’, Metacritic, Viewed 15 January 2015,
http://www.metacritic.com/game/psp/metal-gear-acid; ‘Metal Gear Solid V:
Ground Zeroes PlayStation 4 Metascore’, Metacritic, Viewed 15 January 2015,
http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-4/metal-gear-solid-v-ground-zeroes;
Russ Frishtick ‘Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes Review: Cold War’, Polygon,
March 18th 2014, Viewed 15 January 2015,
http://www.polygon.com/2014/3/18/5519578/metal-gear-solid-5-ground-zeroes-
review; Jim Sterling, ‘Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes Review - Snake Oil’,
Escapistmagazine, 18th March 2014, Viewed 15 January 2015,
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-
games/editorials/reviews/11133-Metal-Gear-Solid-V-Ground-Zeroes-Review-
Snake-Oil.
23
Frank M. Bass, ‘A New Product Growth for Model Consumer Durables’,
Management Science 15 (1969): 215-227, Viewed 15 January 2015,
__________________________________________________________________
http://www.uvm.edu/~pdodds/teaching/courses/2009-08UVM-
300/docs/others/everything/bass1969a.pdf.
24
Sonic the Hedgehog, Tokyo, Japan; Sonic Team, SEGA, 1991. Sega Genesis,
Android, Game Boy Advance, iOS Devices, Java ME, Nintendo DS, Nintendo
3DS, Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Network,
PlayStation Portable, Sega Dreamcast, Sega Saturn, Wii Virtual Console,
Windows, Xbox Live Arcade, Xbox, Xbox 360; Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Tokyo,
Japan: Sonic Team, SEGA, 1992. Sega Genesis/Megadrive, PlayStation 2,
Nintendo GameCube, Nintendo DS, Xbox, Mobile, Microsoft Windows, Virtual
Console, Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, iOS, Android, Windows Phone;
Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Tokyo, Japan: Sonic Team, SEGA, 1994. Sega
Genesis/Megadrive, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo DS, Wii Virtual Console, Xbox
Live Arcade; Sonic the Hedgehog and Knuckles, Tokyo, Japan: Sonic Team,
SEGA, 1994. Sega Genesis/Megadrive, GameCube, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3,
Sega PC, Sega Saturn, Wii Virtual Console, Xbox, Xbox 360; Sonic CD, Tokyo,
Japan; Sonic Team, SEGA, 1993. Sega CD, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo
GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, iOS, Android,
Windows Phone, Ouya.
25
Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric, California, USA: Big Red Button Entertainment, El
Segundo, 2014. Wii U.
26
Shawn Taylor, ‘SEGA Says No to Sonic Boom Review Copies’, Nintendonews,
November 11th 2014, Viewed 15 January 2015,
http://nintendonews.com/2014/11/sega-sonic-boom-review-copies/;
Owen S. Good, ‘Sonic Boom Shows an Appreciation of Platforming’, Polygon,
June 2nd 2014, Viewed 15 January 2015,
http://www.polygon.com/2014/6/2/5770788/sonic-boom-preview-wii-u-3ds; Keith
Stuart, ‘Sega Can Save Sonic the Hedgehog – Here's How’, The Guardian, 26th
November 2014, Viewed 15 January 2015,
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/nov/26/sega-sonic-the-hedgehog.
27
‘Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric WiiU Metascore’, Metacritic, Viewed 15 January
2015, http://www.metacritic.com/game/wii-u/sonic-boom-rise-of-lyric.
28
Jane McGonigal, Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They
Can Change the World (UK: Vintage, 2012).
29
Mary Flanagan, ‘Making Games for Social Change’, AI & Soc 20 (2006): 493–
505, Viewed 15 January 2015,
http://intelligentagent.com/RISD/Flanagan-GamesSocChg.pdf.
30
Leigh Alexander, ‘'Gamers' Don't Have to Be Your Audience. “Gamers” Are
Over’, Gamasutra, August 28th 2014, Viewed 15 January 2014,
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/224400/Gamers_dont_have_to_be_your_au
dience_Gamers_are_over.php.
__________________________________________________________________
31
Matt Hills, ‘Transcultural Otaku: Japanese Representations of Fandom and
Representations of Japan in Anime/Manga Fan Cultures’, Media in Transition 2
Globalization and Convergence (2002), Viewed 15 January 2015,
http://cmsw.mit.edu/mit2/Abstracts/MattHillspaper.pdf.
32
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Robert Kubey, ‘Television and the Rest of life; A
Systematic Comparison of Subjective Experience’, The Public Opinion Quarterly
45 (1981): 317-328, Viewed 15 January 2015,
http://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/24960419/353080319/name/2748608.pdf.
33
George Gerbner et al., ‘Living with Television: The Dynamics of the Cultivation
Process’, Perspectives on Media Effects (1986): 17-40, Viewed 15 January 2015,
http://wiki.commres.org/pds/CultivationTheory/LivingWithTelevision_TheDynami
csoftheCultivationProcess.pdf.
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__________________________________________________________________
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Gentile, Douglas A., Anderson, Craig A. Anderson, Shintaro Yukawa, Nobuko

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Representations of Japan in Anime/Manga Fan Cultures’. Media in Transition 2
Globalization and Convergence (2002). Viewed 15 January 2015.
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__________________________________________________________________
Ingentio, Vince. ‘Flappy Bird Creator to Take Game Down Tomorrow’. IGN,
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to-get-flappy-bird/.
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__________________________________________________________________
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Escapistmagazine, 18th March 2014. Viewed 15 January 2015.
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Ludography
Flappy Bird. Hanoi, Vietnam: GEARS Studios, 2013. iOS, Android, Amazon Fire
TV.
Metal Gear Acid. Tokyo, Japan: Konami Computer Entertainment Japan, 2005.
PlayStation Portable.
Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes. Tokyo, Japan: Kojima Productions, 2014.
PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows.
Skate 3. British Columbia, Canada: EA Black Box, 2010. PlayStation 3, Xbox 360.
Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric. California, USA: Big Red Button Entertainment, El
Segundo, 2014. Wii U.
__________________________________________________________________
Sonic CD. Tokyo, Japan; Sonic Team, SEGA, 1993. Sega CD, Microsoft
Windows, Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation
Network, iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Ouya.
Sonic the Hedgehog. Tokyo, Japan; Sonic Team, SEGA, 1991. Sega Genesis,
Android, Game Boy Advance, iOS Devices, Java ME, Nintendo DS, Nintendo
3DS, Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Network,
PlayStation Portable, Sega Dreamcast, Sega Saturn, Wii Virtual Console,
Windows, Xbox Live Arcade, Xbox, Xbox 360.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Tokyo, Japan: Sonic Team, SEGA, 1992. Sega
Genesis/Megadrive, PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube, Nintendo DS, Xbox,
Mobile, Microsoft Windows, Virtual Console, Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation
Network, iOS, Android, Windows Phone.
Sonic the Hedgehog 3. Tokyo, Japan: Sonic Team, SEGA, 1994. Sega
Genesis/Megadrive, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo DS, Wii Virtual Console, Xbox
Live Arcade.
Sonic the Hedgehog and Knuckles. Tokyo, Japan: Sonic Team, SEGA, 1994. Sega
Genesis/Megadrive, GameCube, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Sega PC, Sega
Saturn, Wii Virtual Console, Xbox, Xbox 360.
Bradley James is a PhD student at Staffordshire University specialising in reward

systems. He has presented and published several papers at the institution, where he
also lectures at degree level across two campuses. Bradley has a multitude of skills
as a journalist and writer, and is available to consult on game design, UX and UI.
Bobbie Fletcher is an experienced project manager and has undertaken extensive

research into Reward in Games, Reward and Demographics in Games, as well as
Immersion and Audience interaction with Augmented Reality. Her PhD is in
Mathematical Modelling and Simulation.
Archives, Identity and Apparatus: Let’s Play and
Videogame Fandom
Thomas Hale
Abstract
There is still fraught discussion about how best to approach the medium of
videogames from an academic perspective, with theorists such as Garry Crawford
and James Newman, as well as critics and developers like Anna Anthropy and
Brendan Keogh, highlighting the lived gameplay experience as one of the most
important resources available to scholars. There has been no adequate discussion in
peer-reviewed academia of the Let’s Play (LP) phenomenon, in which players
record and commentate on their gameplay and share these recordings online –
despite their exponential rise in popularity (three of the top five most popular
YouTube channels are LP). My research focuses on LP as both text and metatext,
with a particular focus given to the cultures that have risen up around creating,
sharing and discussing these videos. My presentation will outline the theoretical
underpinning of my work as grounded in ideas of ‘superplay’ and immaterial
labour. As well as textual analysis of LP videos, I will also address the ways in
which LP video producers and their fans discuss the phenomenon, its origins and
appeal; comparing different discursive narratives and themes in order to explore
these previously ignored connections between fan production and vicarious
engagement with media texts. LP videos provide a fan-produced documentation on
the lived experience of gameplay that is rich for academic exploration: showcasing
fan critique of these games, they also allow audiences to experience videogames by
removing issues of accessibility and cost, as well as acting as archival
preservations of videogame texts. In addition, I believe that LP acts as a mediating
tool through which the image of ‘gamer’ is constructed. Thus, I will demonstrate
how Let’s Play provides an invaluable resource for understanding videogames as
media texts.
Key Words: Videogames, audiences, let’s play, fandom, fan production, identity,
play, archiving.
*****
1. Introduction
One of the least-studied aspects of videogames and videogame fandom is the
ongoing phenomenon of Let’s Play (LP), in which fans record their gameplay
experiences and offer commentary. For the purposes of this chapter, I will be
discussing the origins and key aspects of LP, its many permutations and its
significance as an area of study. This will include detailing my own theories
138 Archives, Identity and Apparatus
__________________________________________________________________
concerning how LP relates to issues of media archival, identity construction and
the power dynamics of modern media consumption.
2. History and Form of the Let’s Play

Let’s Play has existed online since the early 2000s, though in the form of game
screenshots with written commentary. The first video LP to describe itself as ‘Let’s
Play’ was made by Michael ‘slowbeef’ Sawyer, who uploaded video footage of the
Sega Genesis game The Immortal along with voice commentary as a supplement to
his screenshot-based LP in early 2007. A similar venture with Super Metroid later
in the year caught on, and from its origins in the Something Awful forums
community, LP has spread across the Internet. With the rise in available recording
technology and YouTube as a cultural force, LP has become one of the most
popular types of YouTube video: searches for ‘let’s play’ on the site garner over 20
million results, and three of the top five channels produce LP content. In addition
to this is the growth of live streaming of gameplay, with the latest games console
generation – Sony’s PlayStation 4 and Microsoft’s Xbox One – containing inbuilt
streaming capability, allowing players to broadcast themselves at any moment.
Let’s Play videos can take different forms, from the humorous to the
informative to the avant-garde; to illustrate these I have chosen three video clips,
described below.
A. LDShadowLady: Help! Naked Old Men! Towel Required1

This is an example of the popular YouTube style, a short video in which
LDShadowLady plays a very short and strange game about surviving in a large
bath-house while being beset by blocky, Minecraft-esque naked old men. Her
video is dominated by the ‘scarecam’ in the upper left, which shows her reactions
to the game as she plays. At certain points, she cuts into the video to offer more
focused commentary direct-to-camera. The video is highly edited into a brief
showcase.
B. ChipCheezum and General Ironicus: Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance #1-1:

Rules Of Nature (Uncut Commentary) (clip: 17:00-18:06)2
ChipCheezum, the player, is joined by regular co-commentator General
Ironicus in showing off the popular over-the-top cyberpunk action game –this
particular clip focuses on the first major encounter with a giant robot. The
commentary is recorded in post-production, and Ironicus has no prior knowledge
of the game, allowing Chip to solicit his unrehearsed response to the action
onscreen. Chip describes gameplay mechanics and tactics for the fight, silencing
himself to let the spectacle of the game ‘speak for itself’ while Ironicus laughs
gleefully. The ‘knowledgeable player showing off to a friend’ dynamic is common
among LPs of this style, which has its roots in the Something Awful LP
community.
Thomas Hale 139
__________________________________________________________________
C. TieTuesday: Let’s Play Super Godzilla: Special Edition – 4 (clip: 5:22-7:00)3
TieTuesday takes a more avant-garde approach with this series, dubbed
‘Special Edition’. Every sound clip and music file in the original game is replaced,
segments are skipped over or distorted, and commentary is often nonsensical or
parodic. In this clip, as Godzilla is defeated onscreen, the video cuts to a clip of
Joseph Campbell discussing the mythology of warfare and military recruitment:
‘You’ve undergone a death and resurrection…he is sacrificing himself for
something, that’s the morality of it.’ Parallels between Campbell’s speech and the
plot of the game, in which Godzilla is recruited via mind-controlling machinery to
fight in defence of Japan, are clear, though undercut by the unexpectedness of the
serious Campbell sequence among the surreal, subversive humour of the rest of the
LP. Many commenters on TieTuesday’s project joke that it is an example of ‘LP as
art’.
3. Archiving
Many game scholars and developers have addressed the problem of
obsolescence in videogames, most notably James Newman.4 Pearce and Artemesia,
and kopas have also written on this topic.5 With the brief average lifespan of
videogame consoles (which are on the market for only a few years) and the relative
expense in purchasing games, many pieces of interactive media are at risk of being
forgotten. Significantly, Newman stresses the ‘need to shift the balance from game
preservation towards gameplay preservation’,6 as to him the game text is
‘incomplete’ without the gameplay itself. On this front, LP appears to be an ideal
solution, as the gameplay experiences are communicated directly to the audience
by the LP creators (usually called “let’s players” or “LPers”) themselves. Indeed,
one of the largest LP repositories online is named the LP Archive, dedicated to
preserving LP texts (primarily from the Something Awful forums) and the context
in which they were made. In addition, several studies of videogame audiences rely
on artificially-established play environments, imposed by external researchers who
may choose the time, the context or the company in which gameplay occurs.7 LP
sidesteps this issue, as the LPers record themselves, largely unprompted. As such,
there are tens of thousands of hours of gameplay footage, preserved with the
accompanying commentary: the gameplay experience is preserved more
organically than in the above case studies. Following Newman, I agree that a game
text in isolation cannot ‘communicate the lived experience of gameplay’,8 and so
LP preserves a much more complete media text. By preserving this lived
experience, LP offers us a richer understanding of videogames as media objects.
The addition of player commentary means that we not only see and hear the game
and the gameplay experience, but are also allowed a ‘time capsule’-style snapshot
of fan opinions and discussion of the game itself – allowing the voices of past fan
communities to be preserved.9
__________________________________________________________________
4. Critique and Canon
In many ways, LP recreates the social experience of play, highlighted by
scholars as far back as Huizinga, with de Koven in particular discussing the
influence of communication in ascribing play boundaries through sociality.10 As
Newman describes,
[M]uch of our apparently solitary, personal or private videogame

play is always and already situated within a shared experience of
play that locates us within a complex network of gamers.11
And as such LP forms a bridge between the personal and the social with regard
to videogame experiences. Several researchers have described the pleasures of
collaborative play in particular as means of making personal the mass-marketed
game experience.12 Beyond this, by looking at the different ways in which LPers
alter the original text – alternate play styles, adding extra audio and video
components as well as their commentary – we can examine LP as its own
derivative media form. Dicecco & Lane argue that discussion of a performance is
‘an act of memorialization that necessarily produces a new event’13: LP is that new
event.
Many theorists have described the interactivity of videogames as a site rife with
potential for fans to subvert the expectations of the game developers. Newman
describes the phenomenon of superplay, in which players demonstrate ‘mastery of
the game through performance’14 (as demonstrated in Chip Cheezum’s Metal Gear
Rising LP).15 Others, such as Anthropy and Domsch describe the ways in which
videogame fans can engage with games in a role beyond consumer, in particular as
the creators of their own narrative.16 Anthropy in particular describes the pleasures
and subversive power of making one’s own game text, particularly by modifying
existing ones; the above example of TieTuesday’s Super Godzilla LP could fall
into this creation of counter-narrative.17 Domsch focuses mainly on the creative
power a player wields within the game itself. To Domsch, the choices a player
makes inevitably transform a game’s narrative: each playthrough ‘converts
whatever openness the [game’s] architecture holds into something actual and
determinate’.18 However, the resulting configuration might be wholly different
from the original intent. Wright et al. even suggest that the value of gaming may be
found outside the game text, in the ways in which gaming is performed in a social
context.19
By capturing player commentary, LP becomes an essential derivative text – not
only allowing us to experience vicariously the gameplay experience, but also
allowing the LPer to express their own personal thoughts on the game. LPers can
challenge dominant narratives, explore critical and academic themes, and
appropriate the original game text and assets into their own narrative.
DeviousVacuum’s 2014 ‘Let’s Play Girl Games’ project explores online games
Thomas Hale 141
__________________________________________________________________
marketed at young girls and in doing so exposes the rampancy of damaging
patriarchal narratives woven into them; the series ends with a lengthy and serious
discussion of feminism and the importance of analysing the media we allow young
children to experience.20 Chewbot’s 2008 screenshot LP ‘The Terrible Secret of
Animal Crossing’ uses the cute and peaceful world of the game as the basis for a
dark, dystopian horror story.21 There are a growing number of critics using LP as a
platform for serious games critique, with writers such as Brendan Keogh, Zolani
Stewart and Heather Alexandra producing long-form explorations of games such as
Perfect Dark and Shadow of the Colossus with a critical eye.
LP, then, has enormous potential for subversive and critical play and artistic
expression. In practice however, LP acts primarily as an extension of fan
enthusiasm. The vast majority of LPers employ almost identical tropes and
performances. While there is a diverse range of games explored by LP, there are a
handful of popular titles and genres that are disproportionately represented (see
Img.1).
Image 1: Suggested search results on YouTube for ‘let’s play’ Left:

February 2015; Right: September 2015 © 2015.
Courtesy of Thomas Hale.
Newman argues that LP can showcase a ‘range of potential playing’.22 Ligman

however observes that frequently, only the most popular styles of play are
represented: the commercial and peer pressures of YouTube in particular mean the
site is ‘not conducive to these smaller and more personal performances’, leading to
a ‘tendency toward canonization of particular gameplay paths’.23 However, I would
argue that this only emphasises why LP is significant. Just as with other media’s
canons of ‘significant works’, we must understand the ways in which the canon of
LP is formed. The 2006 game Sonic The Hedgehog (often referred to as Sonic
2006) is one game that has been made notorious through LP; there are at least five
complete LP playthroughs on YouTube alone.24 While they vary in commentary
style and showing off certain parts of the game (such as side-quests or
downloadable content), the tone is uniformly one of bewilderment, disbelief,
__________________________________________________________________
frustration and mockery. Though the game itself was received negatively by critics
and fans alike on release, I contend that it is not until its rise to infamy through
these LPs that its legacy as a spectacular failure was assured.
With the rise of YouTube LP, a new metagenre seems to have emerged: so-
called ‘LP bait’. Short horror games such as Slender and the Five Nights At
Freddy’s series offer guaranteed visceral spectacle as the LPer’s nervous
monologues and shocked screams are recorded in real time through scarecam
footage.25 There are also a number of short physics-based ‘toybox’ games such as
Surgeon Simulator and I Am Bread, characterised by poor or counterintuitive
control schemes – the LPer’s frustration and bewilderment are prime sources of
entertainment.26 However, the popularity of LP bait is seen by some as a saturation
of pandering, as LPers and small-time game developers follow a ‘monkey see,
monkey do’ approach to chase what they see as a guaranteed audience for these
game experiences. The canonisation of these games in particular seem to echo de
Koven’s thoughts on codified and communally-negotiated ‘silliness’: while by
necessity each individual play experience is unique, there are agreed-upon
commonalities in how LPers are expected to react to these games (fear,
bewilderment, mockery, laughter).27
Another popular incarnation of LP, as technology has improved, is live
streaming. Using sites and services like Twitch, Hitbox, Livestream and now
YouTube Gaming, LP fans can watch their gameplay and commentary in real time.
One important aspect of live streams is the chat function, and often LPers will react
to the commentary of viewers. In turn, these streams are often archived, preserving
the gameplay events; several LPers also include the chat feed as part of the stream
footage they upload. For example, Something Awful-based LPer supergreatfriend’s
archived stream footage incorporates both gameplay and the live commentary of
his audience.28 Whether streaming or not, the LPer is always consciously
performing for an audience. This inevitably changes the way they play; in addition
the audience’s own behaviour might shift as they recognise the chance that their
commentary might be included with the final archived footage.29
By allowing fans to display themselves to other fans, Let’s Play offers insight
into the ways in which identity is constructed in relation to videogame fandom. To
Giddens, one’s outward appearance is ‘a means of symbolic display, a way of
giving external form to narratives of self-identity’.30 Online, this outward
appearance becomes more malleable and more readily rehearsed. Many theorists
have described how, in the name of self-branding and subcultural capital, fan
identity is often sculpted to promote one’s knowledge or prowess; this has been
described by cultural studies at length.31 This is tied closely with ideas of ‘nerd
culture’ and its transition into / reaction to the mainstream.32 The ‘canon’ of games
that are LP’d can be seen to act as cultural touchstones, similar to Nora’s ‘lieux de
mémoire’33: sites of shared memory that gain extra social significance when they
are explored with and for others. There is also a gendered component to this:
Thomas Hale 143
__________________________________________________________________
Bainbridge & Yates describe the use of media technology as a site of masculine
homosociality in particular, and it bears out that the vast majority of LPers are
men.34 In this way, LP can been seen as reinforcing the dominant archetype of
‘gamer’, perpetuating the hegemonic dominance of male (as well as white) voices
within the wider games industry. We must be cognisant of whose gameplay
experiences are being held up as the most significant.
5. Apparatus
Figure 1: ‘The Career of a Sport Fan / Video Gamer’35 © 2012.

Courtesy of Garry Crawford.
Garry Crawford develops a model of the ‘career path’ of a gamer (fig. 1),
adapted from his prior model pertaining to sports fans.36 Designed to problematize
previous models of fan and audience engagement, it maps levels of enthusiasm
onto a spectrum along which individuals move over the course of their careers (or
indeed their lives). Crucially, Crawford describes these stages as 'types of action,
rather than types of individuals’,37 thus suggesting that one’s interest in the subject
is something one can act on in the form of practice, tuition and the like. However, I
argue that this model, while useful and easily applicable to LP, is missing one key
aspect. While the ‘endpoint’ of Crawford’s progression is that of ‘Apparatus’, i.e.
‘full-time employment in the [culture] industry’, he fails to account for the fact that
each subordinate stage along this route is tied in with industry forces. In many
ways, fandom itself (particularly videogame fandom, which the industry has
cultivated into a particularly virulent consumption-based identity) and fan
enthusiasm in particular can be seen as an extension of corporate machinations, in
particular with relation to the enthusiast press.38 As such, I propose an enhanced
model (Fig. 2), incorporating the culture industry’s influence at all stages.
Figure 2: Enhanced ‘Apparatus’ model, after Crawford © 2012.39

Courtesy of Thomas Hale.
__________________________________________________________________
Linking in with these ideas of fan-as-apparatus is the role of LPer (particularly
popular LPer) as tastemaker. Similar to wider notions of the enthusiast press,
narratives about different games, franchises and genres are mainly reinforced.40
This not only adds to the ‘canonisation’ of certain games and gameplay styles, but
also reinforces narratives about the ‘gamer’ identity itself.41 In this way, the LPer
aspires to be, and in the case of ‘LP superstars’ becomes, part of the apparatus
described above. Thus, the immaterial labour of fandom is used to fuel the material
labour of video production, which in turn perpetuates narratives of the gamer as
consumer.42 The capitalist cycle of desire and identity-through-consumption is
perpetuated through the dominant tropes of LP, and by extension videogame fan
culture at large.43 With LP’s meteoric ascent into the mainstream, more and more
LPers partner with media companies such as Machinima and Maker Studios in
symbiotic branding relationships. However, the more unwieldy side of this
professional realm has become ever more visible: companies offer LPers exclusive
access to games with caveats and review embargoes, along with tight relationships
that draw accusations of payola. These troubling aspects of the new LPer-as-
apparatus status quo are garnering more attention from fans.
6. Conclusion
At the time of writing, videogames and LP are changing rapidly. Demographic
shifts point to gender parity among videogame players in the US and UK, as well
as a market shift toward mobile gaming. As enormous budgets and risk-aversion in
the top tiers of game development drive annual releases of largely similar content,
the independent videogame market is more mainstream than ever, with the
aforementioned mobile surge contributing to this. LP itself is, as described earlier,
one of the most-watched video genres on YouTube, bringing in ‘more than 3.5
billion views each month’, and the number of eSports (competitive gaming events)
viewers has increased exponentially.44 At the same time, a move toward digital
distribution in lieu of physical product releases means that archival of videogame
texts is now more urgent and important than ever before. As I have shown over the
course of this chapter, Let’s Play is inextricably tied to all of these changes, and as
scholars we must endeavour to explore further if we wish to truly understand
videogames and modern media fans.
Notes
1
LDShadowLady, ‘Help! Naked Old Men! | Towel Required’, YouTube, 10
September 2015, 3.50 min., viewed on 18 October 2015,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWkkcLpSY8s.
2
ChipCheezumLPs, ‘Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance #1-1: Rules of Nature
(Uncut Commentary)’, YouTube, 32:56 min., 18 May 2013, viewed on 18 October
2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysmPa2RwAa4.
Thomas Hale 145
__________________________________________________________________
3
TieTuesday, ‘Let’s Play Super Godzilla: Special Edition – 4’, YouTube, 14:05
min., 9 July 2015, viewed on 18 October 2015,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0chpcJ3iRs.
4
James Newman, Best Before: Videogames, Supersession and Obsolescence
(London: Routledge: 2012); James Newman, ‘Illegal Deposit: Game Preservation
and/as Software Piracy’, Convergence 19.1 (2012): 45-61.
5
Celia Pearce and Artemesia, Communities of Play: Emergent Cultures in
Multiplayer Games and Virtual Worlds (USA: MIT Press, 2011); merritt kopas, ‘J
Bearhat’, Woodland Secrets. 7 April 2015, viewed on 18 October 2015,
http://woodlandsecrets.co/episode/2. Podcast.
6
Newman, Best Before, 158.
7
Nicholas David Bowman, Rene Weber, Ron Tamborini and John Sherry,
‘Facilitating Game Play: How Others Affect Performance at and Enjoyment of
Video Games’, Media Psychology 16.1 (2013): 39-64; Margaret Mackey,
Narrative Pleasures in Young Adult Novels, Films and Video Games (Basingstoke:
Palgrave Macmillan, 2011).
8
Newman, Best Before, 158.
9
kopas, ‘Bearhat’.
10
Johan H. Huizinga, Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-Element in Culture
(London: Routledge, 1992); Bernard de Koven, The Well-Played Game: A Player’s
Philosophy (USA: MIT Press, 2013).
11
James Newman, Playing with Videogames (London: Routledge, 2008): viii.
12
Gareth Schott and Maria Kambouri, ‘Social Play and Learning’, Computer
Games: Text, Narrative and Play, eds. Diane Carr, David Buckingham, Andrew
Burn, and Gareth Schott (Cambridge: Polity, 2006), 199-232; Pearce and
Artemesia, Communities of Play.
13
Nico Dicecco and Julia Helen Lane, ‘Choose Your Own Disruption: Clown,
Adaption, and Play’, Games and Culture 9.6 (2014): 503-16, 505.
14
Newman, Playing with Videogames; James Newman, Videogames Second
Edition (London: Routledge, 2012), 123.
15
Chip Cheezum, ‘Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance’.
16
Anna Anthropy, Rise of the Videogame Zinesters (New York: Seven Stories
Press, 2012); Anna Anthropy, ZZT (Los Angeles: Boss Fight Books, 2014);
Sebastian Domsch, Storyplaying: Agency and Narrative in Video Games (Berlin:
Walter de Gruyter, 2013).
17
Anthropy, Rise of the Videogame Zinesters, 90-1; Anthropy, ZZT, 111;
TieTuesday, ‘Let’s Play Super Godzilla: Special Edition’.
18
Domsch, Storyplaying, 48.
19
Talmadge Wright, Eric Boria, and Paul Breidenbach, ‘Creative Player Actions in
FPS On-Line Video Games: Playing Counter-Strike’, Game Studies 2.2 (2002),
viewed on 18 October 2015, http://www.gamestudies.org/0202/wright/.
__________________________________________________________________
20
DeviousVacuum, ‘Girl Games’, lparchive, 2014, viewed on 19 October 2015.
http://lparchive.org/Girl-Games/.
21
Chewbot, ‘The Terrible Secret of Animal Crossing’. lparchive, 2008, viewed on
18 October 2015, http://lparchive.org/Animal-Crossing/.
22
Newman, Videogames, 62.
23
Kris Ligman, ‘Let’s Play: Interactivity by Proxy in a Web 2.0 Culture’,
Popmatters (blog), April-May 2011, viewed on 18 October 2015,
http://www.popmatters.com/post/139428-lets-play-interactivity-by-proxy-in-a-
web-2.0-culture-part-1/.
24
Sonic the Hedgehog, Tokyo: Sonic Team, 2006, Playstation 3 disc, Xbox 360
disc.
25
Slender: The Eight Pages, Parsec Productions, 2012, Digital Download.; Five
Nights at Freddy’s, Salado: Scott Cawthon, 2014, Digital Download.
26
Surgeon Simulator 2013, UK: Bossa Studios, 2013, Digital Download; I Am
Bread, UK: Bossa Studios, 2015, Digital Download.
27
de Koven, ‘The Well-Played Game’.
28
‘supergreatfriend’, ‘supergreatfriend’, Youtube, viewed on 18 October 2015,
https://www.youtube.com/user/supergreatfriend.
29
Holin Lin and Chuen-Tsai Sun, ‘Invisible Gameplay Participants: The Role of
Onlookers in Arcade Gaming’, Underthemask.wikidot, 2008, viewed on 18
October 2015, http://underthemask.wikidot.com/linandsun; Garry Crawford and
Jason Rutter, ‘Playing the Game: Performance in Digital Game Audiences’,
Fandom: Identities and Communities in a Mediated World, eds. Jonathan Gray,
Cornel Sandvoss, and C. Lee Harrington (New York: New York University Press,
2007), 271-281; Charles E. Kimble and Jeffrey Rezabek, ‘Playing Games Before
an Audience: Social Facilitation or Choking’, Social Behavior and Personality
20.2 (1992): 115-120.
30
Anthony Giddens, Self and Society in the Late Modern Age (USA: Stanford
University Press, 1991), 62.
31
Sarah Thornton, Club Cultures: Music, Media and Subcultural Capital (London:
Polity Press, 1992); Caroline Bainbridge and Candida Yates, ‘On Not Being a Fan:
Masculine Identity, DVD Culture and the Accidental Collector’, Wide Screen 1.1
(2010).
32
Jason Tocci, ‘Geek Cultures: Media and Identity in the Digital Age’, Publically
Accessible Penn Dissertations. Paper 953, viewed on 18 October 2015,
http://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/953.
33
Pierre Nora, ‘Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Mémoire’,
Representations 26 (1989): 7-24.
34
Bainbridge and Yates, ‘On Not Being a Fan’.
35
Garry Crawford, Video Gamers (London: Routledge, 2012).
36
Ibid., 63.
Thomas Hale 147
__________________________________________________________________
37
Ibid.
38
Nick Dyer-Witheford and Greig de Peuter, Games of Empire: Global Capitalism
and Video Games (USA: University of Minnesota Press, 2009): 23-7; Rebecca
Carlson, ‘Too Human Versus the Enthusiast Press: Video Game Journalists as
Mediators of Commodity Value’, Transformative Works and Cultures 2 (2009);
Tiziana Terranova, ‘Free Labor: Producing Culture for the Digital Economy’,
Social Text 18.2 (2000): 33-58.
39
Crawford, Video Gamers.
40
Carlson, ‘Too Human Versus the Enthusiast Press’.
41
Ligman, ‘Let’s Play’.
42
Terranova, ‘Free Labor’.
43
Dyer-Witheford and de Peuter, Games of Empire.; Mike Molesworth and Janice
Denegri-Knott, ‘Digital Play and the Actualization of the Consumer Imagination’,
Games and Culture 2.2 (2007): 114-133.
44
Krista Lofgren, ‘2015 Video Games Statistics & Trends: Who’s Playing What &
Why?’ Bigfishgames (blog), 3 March 2015, viewed on 18 October 2015,
http://www.bigfishgames.com/blog/2015-global-video-game-stats-whos-playing-
what-and-why/.
Bibliography
Anthropy, Anna. Rise of the Videogame Zinesters. New York: Seven Stories Press,
2012.
Anthropy, Anna. ZZT. Los Angeles: Boss Fight Books, 2014.
Bainbridge, Caroline and Candida Yates. ‘On Not Being a Fan: Masculine Identity,
DVD Culture and the Accidental Collector’. Wide Screen 1.1 (2010). Viewed on
18 October 2015. http://widescreenjournal.org/index.php/journal/article/view/30
Bowman, Nicholas David, Rene Weber, Ron Tamborini and John Sherry.
‘Facilitating Game Play: How Others Affect Performance at and Enjoyment of
Video Games’. Media Psychology 16.1 (2013): 39-64.
Carlson, Rebecca. ‘Too Human Versus the Enthusiast Press: Video Game
Journalists as Mediators of Commodity Value’. Transformative Works and
Cultures 2. (2009). Viewed on 18 October 2015.
http://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/article/view/98/93
Chewbot. ‘The Terrible Secret of Animal Crossing’. Lparchive, 2008. Viewed on

18 October 2015. http://lparchive.org/Animal-Crossing/.
__________________________________________________________________
ChipCheezumLPs. ‘Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance #1-1: Rules of Nature (Uncut

Commentary)’. YouTube, 18 May 2013. 32:56 min. Viewed on 18 October 2015.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysmPa2RwAa4.
Crawford, Garry. Video Gamers. London: Routledge, 2012.
Crawford, Garry and Jason Rutter. ‘Playing the Game: Performance in Digital
Game Audiences’. Fandom: Identities and Communities in a Mediated World,
edited by Jonathan Gray, Cornel Sandvoss, and C. Lee Harrington, 271-281. New
York: New York University Press, 2007.
de Koven, Bernard. The Well-Played Game: A Player’s Philosophy. USA: MIT

Press, 2013.
DeviousVacuum. ‘Girl Games’. Lparchive, 2014. Viewed on 18 October 2015.

http://lparchive.org/Girl-Games/.
Dicecco, Nico and Julia Helen Lane. ‘Choose Your Own Disruption: Clown,
Adaption, and Play’. Games and Culture 9.6 (2014): 503-16.
Domsch, Sebastian. Storyplaying: Agency and Narrative in Video Games. Berlin:

Walter de Gruyter, 2013.
Dyer-Witheford, Nick and Greig de Peuter. Games of Empire: Global Capitalism

and Video Games. USA: University of Minnesota Press, 2009.
Five Nights at Freddy’s. Salado: Scott Cawthon, 2014. Digital Download.
Giddens, Anthony. Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. USA: Stanford
Huizinga, Johan H. Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-Element in Culture.

London: Routledge, 1992.
I Am Bread. UK: Bossa Studios, 2015. Digital Download.
Kimble, Charles E. and Jeffrey Rezabek. ‘Playing Games before an Audience:

Social Facilitation or Choking’. Social Behavior and Personality 20.2 (1992): 115-
120.
Thomas Hale 149
__________________________________________________________________
kopas, merritt. ‘J Bearhat’, Woodland Secrets. 7 April 2015. Viewed on 18 October

2015. http://woodlandsecrets.co/episode/2. Podcast.
LDShadowLady. ‘Help! Naked Old Men! | Towel Required’. YouTube, 10

September 2015, 3:50 min. Viewed on 18 October 2015.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWkkcLpSY8s.
Ligman, Kris. ‘Let’s Play: Interactivity by Proxy in a Web 2.0 Culture’.

Popmatters (blog), April-May 2011. Viewed on 18 October 2015.
http://www.popmatters.com/post/139428-lets-play-interactivity-by-proxy-in-a-
web-2.0-culture-part-1/.
Lin, Holin and Chuen-Tsai Sun. ‘Invisible Gameplay Participants: The Role of
Onlookers in Arcade Gaming’. Underthemask.wikidot, 2008. Viewed on 18
October 2015. http://underthemask.wikidot.com/linandsun.
Lofgren, Krista. ‘2015 Video Games Statistics & Trends: Who’s Playing What &
Why?’ Bigfishgames (blog), 3 March 2015. Viewed on 18 October 2015.
http://www.bigfishgames.com/blog/2015-global-video-game-stats-whos-playing-
what-and-why/.
Mackey, Margaret. Narrative Pleasures in Young Adult Novels, Films and Video
Games. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.
Molesworth, Mike and Janice Denegri-Knott. ‘Digital Play and the Actualization
of the Consumer Imagination’. Games and Culture 2.2 (2007): 114-133.
Newman, James. Best Before: Videogames, Supersession and Obsolescence.

London: Routledge: 2012.
Newman, James. ‘Illegal Deposit: Game Preservation and/as Software Piracy’.

Convergence 19.1 (2012): 45-61.
Newman, James. Playing with Videogames. London: Routledge, 2008.
Newman, James. Videogames. Second Edition. London: Routledge, 2012.
Nora, Pierre. ‘Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Mémoire’.

Representations 26 (1989): 7-24.
__________________________________________________________________
Pearce, Celia and Artemesia. Communities of Play: Emergent Cultures in

Multiplayer Games and Virtual Worlds. USA: MIT Press, 2011.
Schott, Gareth and Maria Kambouri. ‘Social Play and Learning’. Computer
Games: Text, Narrative and Play, edited by Diane Carr, David Buckingham,
Andrew Burn, and Gareth Schott, 199-232. Cambridge: Polity, 2006.
Slender: The Eight Pages. Parsec Productions. 2012. Digital Download.
Sonic the Hedgehog. Tokyo: Sonic Team, 2006. Playstation 3 disc, Xbox 360 disc.
‘supergreatfriend’. ‘supergreatfriend’. Youtube. Viewed on 18 October 2015.

https://www.youtube.com/user/supergreatfriend.
Surgeon Simulator 2013. UK: Bossa Studios, 2013. Digital Download.
Terranova, Tiziana. ‘Free Labor: Producing Culture for the Digital Economy’.
Social Text 18.2 (2000): 33-58.
Thornton, Sarah. Club Cultures: Music, Media and Subcultural Capital. London:
Polity Press, 1992.
TieTuesday. ‘Let’s Play Super Godzilla: Special Edition – 4’. YouTube, 9 July
2015. 14:05 min. Viewed on 18 October 2015.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0chpcJ3iRs.
Tocci, Jason. ‘Geek Cultures: Media and Identity in the Digital Age’. Publically
Accessible Penn Dissertations. Paper 953. Viewed on 18 October 2015.
http://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/953.
Wright, Talmadge, Eric Boria, and Paul Breidenbach. ‘Creative Player Actions in
FPS On-Line Video Games: Playing Counter-Strike’. Game Studies 2.2 (2002).
Viewed on 18 October 2015. http://www.gamestudies.org/0202/wright/.
Thomas Hale is a PhD candidate at the University of Aberystwyth. His doctoral

research focuses on Let’s Play and videogame fandom. His research interests
include online cultures, intersectional feminist and queer theory, and critical
discourse analysis. Contact e-mail address: tjh10@aber.ac.uk.
Grand Theft Auto V: Capitalist Hyperreality in the
Age of Cynical Reason
Simon Murphy
Abstract
Grand Theft Auto V, the biggest selling entertainment release in history, has a
unique relationship with commodification. This renders it a significant text for
video game studies and critical theory alike. The game’s content and narrative
simultaneously critiques and celebrates consumer culture and some of the
questionable mechanisms of postmodern global capitalism. This two-part chapter
will first examine the textual and ludic devices employed by the developers using
the critical framework of Jean Baudrillard’s theory of hyperreality and Slavoj
Žižek’s concept of postmodernity as ‘the age of cynical reason’. The game-world
of San Andreas is a hyperreal manipulation of signs inherent to Western
capitalism. However, this hyperreality rests upon the developers’ understanding,
and textual insistence, that the consumer society we inhabit is already hyperreal.
The anti-capitalist satire which runs throughout the game demonstrates what Žižek
refers to as the ‘laying-bare’ of the production process of a postmodern
commodity. As a result, the game is not only a perfect example of Žižek’s theory,
but an innovative, if not paradoxical instance of self-aware capitalist marketing.
The second part of the chapter will explore the effect that the unique brand of
capitalist hyperreality within GTA V has on player culture and behaviour. Like
many contemporary video games, GTA Online places a central emphasis on a
virtual economy. An analysis of player attitudes towards microtransactions and
financially motivated cheating within the GTA Online community will achieve two
aims. Firstly, it will reveal emergent practices in a virtual world in which
consumerism is ridiculed, yet structurally inherent. Secondly, it will demonstrate
an issue that has wider implications for video game theory. Video games,
increasingly commodified and structured around virtual economies, influence
player behaviour to such a degree that player creativity, of which cheating is one
example, begins to diminish.
Key Words: GTA, hyperreality, virtual economy, capitalism, microtransactions,

cheating.
*****
In Simulacra and Simulation philosopher Jean Baudrillard claims that in

contemporary postmodern culture we experience a proliferation of signs and
images which have become more real than reality itself. Products are no longer
judged by their ‘real’ value, their use or exchange value, but their sign-value. As
152 Grand Theft Auto V
__________________________________________________________________
such, products no longer bear any relation to the real. Baudrillard uses the example
of Disneyland to explain his concept of hyperreality. Disneyland is
presented as imaginary in order to make us believe that the rest is

real, whereas all of Los Angeles and the America that surrounds
it are no longer real, but belong to the hyperreal order and to the
order of simulation.1
Unlike Baudrillard’s Disneyland example, the Grand Theft Auto franchise, whose
success lies in the developer’s ability to create an immersive and realistic virtual
world, uses hyperreality to remind its audience that the consumer society we
inhabit is already hyperreal. The game developers, Rockstar North, are not only
conscious of capitalist hyperreality but deliberately structure large parts of GTA Vs
content around it. Signs and systems inherent to Western capitalism are
manipulated and replicated in the fictional world of San Andreas. The result is a
game which has a unique relationship with commodification, critiquing the very
nature of the capitalist devices upon which it relies for its success. This chapter
will first demonstrate that the anti-capitalist satire which runs throughout the game
is what Slavoj Žižek refers to as the ‘laying-bare’ of the production process of a
postmodern commodity, in what he terms the ‘age of cynical reason’. Secondly,
the chapter will demonstrate that the use of hyperreality in GTA V, both as a means
of critiquing capitalist culture and as a means of increasing the game’s cultural
capital, directly influences player behaviour and the experience of play. An
analysis of cheating following the game’s 2013 release will achieve two aims.
Firstly, it will reveal emergent practices and behaviour such as money-oriented
glitching and modding and the subsequent defence of these actions in a virtual
world in which consumerism is ridiculed, yet structurally inherent. Secondly, it
will demonstrate an issue that has wider implications for video game theory: the
increasing emphasis on virtual economies in video games influences player
behaviour to the extent that player creativity, expressed through cheating and
gaming capital, begins to diminish.
GTA V critiques many aspects of capitalist society, including modern digital
culture. The player is repeatedly encouraged to reflect on the absurdity of
advertising, social media and the artificial nature of commodities. One example of
this is the inclusion of the fictional social media network Lifeinvader. Lifeinvader
does not only exist within the game, but also has a real-world website which
players can visit. The website contains a number of tongue-in-cheek slogans such
as ‘Lifeinvader: social self respect’, and ‘Lifeinvader: where your personal
information becomes a marketing profile (that we can sell)’.2 While Rockstar uses
Lifeinvader to ridicule and expose social media as a simulation, it is also used to
increase the game’s cultural capital. The website enables users to ‘stalk’ companies
in return for in-game discounts on certain items.3 Additionally, Rockstar have
Simon Murphy 153
__________________________________________________________________
developed a fully functioning social network, Rockstar Games Social Club, which
advertises in-game events and provides an arena for players to communicate. The
satirical critique of cultural and consumerist products and the concurrent use of
these very same devices demonstrates a logic of marketing explored by
philosopher Slavoj Žižek in The Plague of Fantasies. According to Žižek, the
central paradox of postmodernity…is that the very process of

production, the laying-bare of its mechanism functions as the
fetish which conceals the crucial dimension of the form, that is,
of the social mode of production.4
Examples of this phenomenon include ‘the-making-of’ documentaries which

accompany blockbuster films and, more recently, video games. The exposure of
artifice as a marketing tool situates postmodern global capitalist culture as the age
of ‘cynical reason’. Consumers are not wholly convinced by capitalist ideology and
marketing techniques. This does not lead to a rejection of capitalism but rather
creates ‘cynical distance’ between consumers and commodities. However, as Žižek
states, ‘even if we do not take things seriously, even if we keep an ironical
distance, we are still doing them.5
The idea of cynical, ironic distance between consumer and commodity is
evident within the narrative of GTA V. The concept is used to ridicule the player
for their status as a consumer. For example, an in-game cut-scene included in GTA
V for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One features two non-player characters
discussing their work. One character is heard to say
PM’s pushing for more functionality, but we are maxed [...] if

anything we have to strip features, especially if we plan on
releasing a fully priced update a year later.6
This conversation references the fact that some players spent £40 on the original
copy of the game, only to spend another £40 a year later on a slightly updated
version of the original game, in order for it to be compatible with the new
generation of consoles. This kind of brash anti-capitalist satire within the biggest
selling entertainment product of all time is not just a narrative device for
entertainment purposes, but a glimpse into the power that cynical distance has over
consumers. Not only do people keep an ‘ironical distance’ while consuming
products, they continue to consume products that expose the absurdity of consumer
behaviour.
The inclusion of a virtual stock market in GTA V illustrates the relevance of
both Žižek’s concept of the logic of capitalism and Baudrillard’s theory of
hyperreality for video games theory. Five missions revolve around stock market
manipulation. Players are required not only to invest capital into companies listed
__________________________________________________________________
on the stock market, but also to assassinate CEOs and destroy the property of
fictional companies to inflate the price of their stock share and sell it for a profit. In
2007, the former CEO of Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., Rockstar’s parent
company, was sentenced to five years’ probation and fined over seven million
dollars for committing large-scale stock manipulation.7 The stock-market
manipulation in GTA V can therefore be read as ‘laying bare’ criminal and immoral
processes of production in postmodern capitalism as a means of increasing the
game’s cultural capital and profitability. The hyperreal stock market in GTA V
reminds us that the distinction between the real and the virtual is already
problematic. On the subject of money Žižek observes that, ‘With the prospect of
electronic money, money loses its material presence and turns into a purely virtual
entity’.8 Just as products are no longer judged by their ‘real’ value, but by their
sign-value, money arguably no longer bears any relation to the ‘real’ in
postmodern capitalist culture. If money is situated in the realm of the hyperreal
then the stock market simulation in GTA V is a simulation of a virtual entity. One
of the stock market manipulation missions in GTA V requires the player to
assassinate Brett Lowrey, CEO of Bilkington Research, in order to raise the price
of Betta Pharmaceuticals stock. A human death, albeit the death of an in-game
character, is the most relatable element of the mission. It is a puncture of reality in
an otherwise virtual world of electronic money, stocks and shares. All of which are
just as virtual in New York or London as they are in Los Santos. Although the
foundations upon which capitalism rests are largely virtual, Žižek reminds us that
this ideological abstraction is ‘“real” in the precise sense of determining the
structure of the very material social processes’.9 The virtual aspects of the
economy - of which the stock market is an embodiment - have real effects on
people. Conversely, the stock market missions in GTA V offer the player the
opportunity to experience the manipulation of this virtual sphere, upon which they
would never normally have an effect.
Just as ideological abstractions determine material social processes, efforts to
increase the profitability of video games have real effects on player behaviour and
the experience of play. In GTA Online, the Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO)
style counterpart to the single-player story-mode, player achievement and progress
are dependent upon the accumulation of virtual wealth. Players can generate wealth
either through completing missions and races, or through purchasing virtual cash
cards with real currency. Ranging from £1.99 for 100,000 GTA$ to £64.99 for
8,000,000 GTA$, these cash cards are available to purchase instantly in-game. The
sale of virtual money by the developer is part of a wider shift in the video games
industry towards ‘microtransactions’. By attempting to increase the profitability of
the franchise in this way Rockstar have solidified the centrality of a hyperreal
virtual economy in GTA V. As the next part of this chapter will demonstrate, this
not only has implications on the video game industry as whole but threatens the
Simon Murphy 155
__________________________________________________________________
relationship between player and developer, as well as some of the fundamental
creative elements of play.
One consequence of the emphasis on wealth accumulation in GTA Online has
been an upsurge in cheating as a method of generating and distributing large sums
of virtual cash. Cheating consists of ‘glitching’, actions that exploit weaknesses in
games but do not require altering the game’s coding, and also through ‘modding’,
the more technical act of altering coding, usually in direct violation of the game’s
EULA. The first ‘money glitch’ came just days after the game was released. This
glitch enabled players to duplicate and sell expensive cars repeatedly, bypassing
controls set in place to limit car sales to once every forty-eight minutes. With the
exploit repeatable every couple of minutes, virtual wealth could be generated at
over twenty times the rate that Rockstar had intended.10 Despite efforts by the
developers to close the multitude of similar glitches that were identified and
exploited by players, within hours of a software patch, the internet was awash with
updated glitch methods, growing ever more convoluted and complicated to
perform. One of the most notorious instances of cheating by ‘modders’ in GTA
Online, has gone down in gamer history as ‘the billionaire days’.11 During
November 2013, reports surfaced online that some players had received millions,
even billions, of GTA$ from mysterious virtual benefactors whilst playing online.
In December, the Metro reported that the real-money equivalent of illegitimately
generated GTA$ was running into the multi-millions. One player alone reportedly
had a GTA$ bank balance worth just under £12 million in cash cards,
demonstrating the sheer scale of cheating at the time.12
Online gaming forums suggest multiple reasons for cheating in GTA Online.
Some players justified financially-motivated cheating as a natural response to a
game in which immoral and criminal profiteering is a central aim. In one forum
post a user observed:
The game revolves around heists, money, robberies and felonies.

This is our way of doing a quick and easy way to get money, did
you expect any less from a GTA gamer?13
The hyper-capitalist emphasis on wealth generation and progression prescribed by

the game’s narrative, design and dynamics directly influenced individual attitudes
towards the experience and purpose of play. In the absence of a labour force to
exploit, the gamer-capitalist turns to the game coding and mechanics, exploiting
the structure of the virtual world which they inhabit for personal gain and pleasure.
Cheating has also been identified by players as a reaction to stringent measures put
in place by Rockstar to restrict wealth generation. When GTA Online first became
available players instantly recognised that weapons and car modifications were
significantly more expensive to purchase than in the single player mode.14
Furthermore, Rockstar reduced the GTA$ payout for short races and missions
__________________________________________________________________
which required players to commit more time to the game to accumulate virtual
wealth. Efforts to restrict the profitability of ‘grinding’, whilst raising the price of
luxury items, provoked a negative response from the online gaming community.
Exasperated by the combination of high price items and low payouts, players
complained that Rockstar were pushing them into buying cash cards.15
Consequently, some players viewed instances of cheating, such as those
experienced during the ‘billionaire days’, positively. ‘Modders’ were regarded as
‘Robin Hood’ characters, gifting billions of GTA$ to other players for no
commercial gain. One forum user claimed ‘they are doing us a great service [...] it
will HOPEFULLY cause rockstar to re-think their direction/plans with their cash
card SCAMMING!’16 Responses like these indicate that cheating can be an act of
rebellion against the commodification of GTA Online. The cat and mouse
relationship between players and developers demonstrates the difficulties that can
arise from virtual economies in video games, particularly those with MMO
elements. The cynical consumer is determined to avoid exploitation by the
developer, but still wishes to consume the product. The emphasis on wealth
generation threatens the relationship between developer and player, and can result
in an antagonistic and confrontational discourse.
While many players view cheating positively, online gaming forums suggests
that money-oriented cheating in GTA Online divides opinion among the online
gaming community. One of the main criticisms levelled at ‘glitchers’ relates to the
time-consuming and repetitive nature of identifying and exploiting loopholes in the
game’s mechanics. Players are required to perform boring and laborious tasks such
as walking in and out of garages, disconnecting their game, reloading, switching
characters and selling cars, just to increase their virtual bank balance. In spending
increasing amounts of time performing glitches players are seen, by some, to be
failing to experience the game. Glitchers, by contrast, feel that grinding is equally
boring and repetitive.17 The term ‘grinding’ has traditionally been used by gamers
to negatively describe repetitive or monotonous tasks required for player
progression. Developers have often been accused of making games that require lots
of grinding in order to artificially produce longevity. Excessive or poor
implementation of such mechanisms often provokes criticism among gamers, with
Destiny being a recent example of a major release that faced such accusations.18 In
GTA Online, however, player attitudes towards grinding were positive when the
alternative method of wealth generation became a real money purchase from the
video game’s creators. In this case, grinding is perceived by some as a right to
work for one’s own wealth, and as an alternative to bowing to the commercialism
of GTA Online.19
An increasing emphasis on virtual wealth in video games does not only change
player attitudes towards types of play such as grinding, but also affects the way in
which cheating has been used and regarded since the earliest video games. Mia
Consalvo uses ‘gaming capital’ to describe ‘how being a member of game culture
Simon Murphy 157
__________________________________________________________________
is about more than playing games’. It also involves, she argues: ‘being
knowledgeable about game releases and secrets, and passing that information to
others’.20 Along with fan forums, magazines and, more recently, machinima and
YouTube videos, cheating has always held a central position within the channels of
communication that makes up gaming capital. As games evolved, the inclusion of
Easter eggs - interesting gimmicks but with no practical utility for the player -
began to be supplemented with cheat codes. Initially programmed by the
developers for testing purposes, these codes provided features such as invincibility
and unlimited ammunition, allowing testers to ‘move around a game world quickly
to gather information’. Game developers soon realised that these cheat codes could
be commodified as a product to accompany their games, releasing them via games
magazines. This led to lucrative deals for front-page features and added longevity
to the titles, tempting players who had moved away from the game to return, with
the promise of a new experience.21
The ‘open-world’ nature of GTA games has always offered players a choice: to
follow the storyline, or to rampage independently around the city. The latter style
of play requires an arsenal of weaponry and health regeneration, which has
typically been instantly available through the input of cheat codes. Cheating in this
manner has always been a popular way to free the player from the constraints of
the game. The introduction of cash cards, the increased cost of weapons and items,
and efforts to prevent glitching in GTA Online, however, threatens the player’s
sense of freedom in play. Players that choose to cheat in order to purchase
expensive virtual commodities expend vast amounts of time and energy performing
repetitive actions or tweaking server and hardware settings. Some go even further,
recording and uploading evidence of their efforts. Numerous videos and screen-
shots have been published online showing players who have used glitching or
modding methods to generate billions or even trillions of GTA$. This serves as a
reminder of Žižek’s assertion that money is an ‘invisible, and for that very reason
all-powerful, spectral frame which dominates our lives’.22 This is as true in virtual
economies as it is in real-world economies. Virtual economies influence player
behaviour to such a degree that the creative, game-enhancing cheating methods
which Consalvo discusses in her study are, to an extent, diminished. Profiteering
cheating methods also, arguably, diminish the gaming capital of GTA Online. As
cheating increased, discussions about cheating methods and the ethics of cheating
dominated GTA Online forums, at the expense of potentially more creative forms
of play. This makes the traditional role of gaming capital problematic, as the same
fan forums that developers rely on to create channels of communication for their
games, increasing their cultural output, are also the places where potentially
revenue-damaging cheats are shared. With the increase in microtransactions, the
role of money in video games will continue to shape the experience of play.
Grinding may become even more laborious in an attempt to encourage people to
spend real money. Furthermore, the player-created gaming capital which has
__________________________________________________________________
always added a rich body of resources for gamers and developers alike may
become increasingly focused on one very limited element of digital play: the
pursuit of virtual wealth.
Notes
1
Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation, trans. Sheila Faria Glaser (USA:
University of Michigan Press, 1994), 13.
2
‘Lifeinvader’, Lifeinvader.com, viewed on 12 November 2014,
www.lifeinvader.com.
3
‘Lifeinvader’, GTA Wiki. viewed on 11 November 2014,
http://gta.wikia.com/Lifeinvader.
4
Slavoj Žižek, The Plague of Fantasies (London: Verso, 1997), 102.
5
Slavoj Žižek, ‘How Did Marx Invent the Symptom?’ Mapping Ideology, ed.
Slavoj Žižek (London: Verso, 1994), 312.
6
Grand Theft Auto V, New York, Rockstar North/Rockstar Games (Take-Two
Interactive, originally published in 2013, PlayStation 4/Xbox One version
published in 2014).
7
Kira Bindrim, ‘Former Take-Two CEO Gets Probation’, Crain’s New York
Business, August 2007, viewed on 11 October 2014,
http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20070801/FREE/70801008.
8
Žižek, The Plague of Fantasies, 102-103.
9
Slavoj Žižek, The Ticklish Subject (London: Verso, 1999), 276.
10
‘Infinite Money Glitch. Works on PS3 and Xbox’, GTAForums, 26 October
2013, viewed on 14 October 2014, http://gtaforums.com/topic/638379-infinite-
money-glitch-works-on-ps3-and-xbox/.
11
‘Billionaire Days’, GTAForums, 10 March 2014, viewed on 14 October 2014,
http://gtaforums.com/topic/692072-billionaire-days/.
12
Christopher Hooton, ‘GTA Online Cheaters Have Stolen In-Game Money Worth
Millions’, Metro, 19 December 2013, viewed on 15 October 2014,
http://metro.co.uk/2013/12/19/gta-online-cheaters-have-stolen-in-game-money-
worth-millions-4237647/.
13
‘So Cheaters, How Do You Feel?’, GTAForums, 12 October 2013, viewed on 14
October 2014,
http://gtaforums.com/topic/625359-so-cheaters-how-do-you-feel/page-4.
14
Grand Theft Auto V, Rockstar North/Rockstar Games (Take-Two Interactive,
2013).
15
‘GTA Online: Everything’s Expensive!’, GTAForums, 6 October 2013, viewed
on 10 November 2014, http://gtaforums.com/topic/617078-gta-online-everythings-
expensive/.
Simon Murphy 159
__________________________________________________________________
16
‘Well, I Finally Got Gifted by a Modder Last Night’, GTAForums, 7 November
2013, viewed on 15 October 2014, http://gtaforums.com/topic/646250-well-i-
finally-got-gifted-by-a-modder-last-night/.
17
‘Lets Face It...Legit or Glitcher?’, GTAForums, 21 July 2014, viewed on 14
October 2014, http://gtaforums.com/topic/725606-lets-face-itlegit-or-glitcher/.
18
Yannick LeJacq, ‘I Want to Play Video Games, Not Grind through “Content”’,
Kotaku, 3 October 2014, viewed on 15 October 2014, http://kotaku.com/i-want-to-
play-video-games-not-grind-through-content-1642246650.
19
‘Make $200,000 per Hour in GTA Online - Not a Glitch (1.06)’, IGN Boards, 23
November 2013, viewed on 14 October 2014,
http://www.ign.com/boards/threads/make-200-000-per-hour-in-gta-online-not-a-
glitch-1-06.453543811/.
20
Mia Consalvo, Cheating: Gaining an Advantage in Video Games
(Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2007), 2.
21
Consalvo, Cheating, 45-46.
22
Žižek, The Plague of Fantasies, 102-103.
Bibliography
Baudrillard, Jean. Simulacra and Simulation. Translated by Sheila Faria Glaser.
USA: University of Michigan Press, 1994.
‘Billionaire Days’. GTAForums. 10 March 2014. Viewed on 14 October 2014.

http://gtaforums.com/topic/692072-billionaire-days/.
Bindrim, Kira. ‘Former Take-Two CEO Gets Probation’. Crain’s New York
Business. August 2007. Viewed on 11 October 2014.
http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20070801/FREE/70801008.
Consalvo, Mia. Cheating: Gaining an Advantage in Video Games. Massachusetts:

MIT Press, 2007.
Grand Theft Auto V, New York, Rockstar North/Rockstar Games (Take-Two

Interactive, 2013).
‘GTA Online: Everything’s Expensive!’ GTAForums. 6 October 2013. Viewed on

10 November 2014.
http://gtaforums.com/topic/617078-gta-online-everythings-expensive/.
__________________________________________________________________
Hooton, Christopher. ‘GTA Online Cheaters Have Stolen In-Game Money Worth
Millions’. Metro. 19 December 2013. Viewed on 15 October 2014.
http://metro.co.uk/2013/12/19/gta-online-cheaters-have-stolen-in-game-money-
worth-millions-4237647/.
‘Infinite Money Glitch. Works on PS3 and Xbox’. GTAForums. 26 October 2013.
Viewed on 14 October 2014. http://gtaforums.com/topic/638379-infinite-money-
glitch-works-on-ps3-and-xbox/.
LeJacq, Yannick. ‘I Want to Play Video Games, Not Grind through “Content”’.
Kotaku. 3 October 2014. Viewed on 15 October 2014. http://kotaku.com/i-want-to-
play-video-games-not-grind-through-content-1642246650.
‘Lets Face It...Legit or Glitcher?’ GTAForums. 21 July 2014. Viewed on 14

October 2014. http://gtaforums.com/topic/725606-lets-face-itlegit-or-glitcher/.
‘Lifeinvader’. GTA Wiki. 2014. Viewed on 11 November 2014.
http://gta.wikia.com/Lifeinvader.
‘Lifeinvader’. Lifeinvader.com. Viewed on 12 November 2014.

www.lifeinvader.com.
‘Make $200,000 per Hour in GTA Online - Not a Glitch (1.06)’. IGN Boards. 23
November 2013. Viewed on 14 October 2014.
http://www.ign.com/boards/threads/make-200-000-per-hour-in-gta-online-not-a-
glitch-1-06.453543811/.
‘So Cheaters, How Do You Feel?’. GTAForums. 12 October 2013. Viewed on 14

October 2014.
http://gtaforums.com/topic/625359-so-cheaters-how-do-you-feel/page-4.
‘Well, I Finally Got Gifted by a Modder Last Night’. GTAForums. 7 November

2013. Viewed on 15 October 2014. http://gtaforums.com/topic/646250-well-i-
finally-got-gifted-by-a-modder-last-night/.
‘Why Is Being a Freeroam Warrior so Expensive?’ GTAForums. 7 August 2014.

Viewed on 15 October 2014. http://gtaforums.com/topic/729575-why-is-being-a-
freeroam-warrior-so-expensive/.
Žižek, Slavoj. ‘How Did Marx Invent the Symptom?’ Mapping Ideology, edited by
Slavoj Žižek, 296-331. London: Verso, 1994.
Simon Murphy 161
__________________________________________________________________
Žižek, Slavoj. The Plague of Fantasies. London: Verso, 1997.
Žižek, Slavoj. The Ticklish Subject. London: Verso, 1999.
Simon Murphy graduated from Cardiff University with an MA in Critical and

Cultural Theory. He specialises in video game theory, with a particular focus on
virtual economies. Simon is currently working in quality assurance for SEGA, and
pursuing further postgraduate opportunities.

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Levelling Up

Ana Maria Borlescu

Inter-Disciplinary Press is a part of Inter-Disciplinary.Net

The Cultural Impact of Videogames

Brittany Kuhn and Alexia Bhéreur-Lagounaris

The Inter-Disciplinary Press is part of Inter-Disciplinary.Net – a global network

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a

Inter-Disciplinary Press, Priory House, 149B Wroslyn Road, Freeland,

Part I Theoretical Impact of Videogames

Aristotle Goes to the Arcade: The Ethics of Videogames, 3

We Are Legion: Artificial Intelligence in BioWare’s 11

Theories of Gaming: Are Video Games Text, Game, 21

Ludic Narratology: Creating a Theory of Structure 29

Observing Iterative Design on the Game Dominaedro 39

Part II Individual Impact by Videogames

Cognitive Dissonance as an Ethical Instrument 51

When All You Can Be Is about Who You Already Are: 63

Designing the Peaceable Kingdom: The Canadian-Ness 73

Romance Is Difficult: Choice, Agency and the Sexual 85

Part III Social Impact through Videogames

Massively Multiplayer Online Science 105

Is Citizen Science Gaming the Next ‘Level Up’ 111

Understanding the Fanboy Culture: Their Place 121

Archives, Identity and Apparatus: Let’s Play and 137

Grand Theft Auto V: Capitalist Hyperreality in the 151

Brittany Kuhn and Alexia Bhéreur-Lagounaris

This ‘c factor’ is not strongly correlated with the average or

Bibliography not added by the editors.

Theoretical Impact of Videogames

• Those based on erroneous belief;

2. Examples of Videogame Criticisms

take a conservative stance, until proven otherwise. Assume that

4. False Experiential Pleasure in Aristotle’s Ethics

I will explore two examples, those of excess and of alien pleasure or

5. A Eudaimonic Defense of Videogames

‘Control of Space Invaders and Other Electronic Games’. Parliamentary Debates,

Parkin, Simon. Death by Videogame: Tales of Obsession from the Virtual

Wolfsdorf, David. Pleasure in Ancient Greek Philosophy. New York: Cambridge

Wood, Richard T. A. ‘Problems with the Concept of Video Game “Addiction”:

Declan J. Humphreys is a PhD student at the University of New England,

Key Words: BioWare, Mass Effect, artificial intelligence, geth, self-awareness,

1. The Hostile, the Outlawed and the Supportive - An Introduction

2. ‘The Created Will Always Rebel Against Their Creators.’ – Overcoming

3. ‘There is no invidual.’ – AI and the Collective Mind

4. ‘To Serve and Protect’ – The Supportive Side of AI

5. ‘The Line Between Synthetic and Organic Disappears’ – Final Thoughts

‘animalruless’. ‘Mass Effect 3: Meeting and Talking with Leviathan’. YouTube,

‘Catalyst’. Mass Effect Wikia. Viewed on 16 June 2015.

‘Cogito Ergo Sum’. Wikipedia, 19 October 2015. Viewed on 15 June 2015.

Descartes, René. Discourse on the Method. 1673. Viewed on 15 June 2015.

Dick, Philip K. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? New York: Douleday,

‘EDI’. Mass Effect Wikia. Viewed on 16 June 2015.

‘Generic Gaming’. ‘Mass Effect Extended Cut – New Catalyst Dialogue’.

‘Geth’. Mass Effect Wikia. Viewed on 16 June 2015.

‘Hekil Yang’. ‘Mass Effect 2 – Reactivating Legion’. YouTube, 3:53 min., 26

Mass Effect. Canada, BioWare, 2007, PC version, DVD.

Mass Effect 2. Canada, BioWare, 2010, PC version, DVD.

Mass Effect 2: Overlord DLC. Canada, BioWare, 2010, PC version, digital

Mass Effect 3. Canada, BioWare, 2012, PC version, DVD.