As part of our Game Art Essentials module, we are not only looking at the production of game environments but also at the issues surrounding the industry. Considering the issue of video game violence we were shown a feature documentary titled 'Moral Combat.'
Video games appeal so strongly to us as they tell stories. It is these stories which have the ability to influence and shape our culture. The point was raised that trough gaming a person gan lead twenty different lives through virtual characters. This level of emersion concerns many people.
The main issue surrounding video game violence seems to be that the virtual worlds developers create are growing increasingly more realistic. Because these virtual environments so strongly reflect reality, some believe that as the general games market is often perceived to be children, the games created should reflect how we want children to perceive reality. Traditionally, arcade games such as astroids and pong were considered popular. When the arcade fighting simulator 'Mortal Combat' came along, what really grabbed people's attention was the violent 'fatalities,' where the winning player performs a graphic finisher on his enemy. The realism of the arcade during time combined with its violent subject matter raised much controversy. Because of this, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) was brought in to enforce an age rating system on video games like in film.
One of the controversies discussed in the documentary was the Columbine incident where two outcast students massacred schoolmates with firearms after playing the game 'Doom' (1993). The premise of Doom is that the player is being attacked by non-human enemies and must simply kill or be killed. It was believed that the video almost acted like a military simulator fuelling the Columbine incident, training the players to operate firearms and preparing them to kill. The comparison was later made that airline pilots train on computer simulators which qualify them to operate an aircraft in reality. If this is achievable through virtual simulation, could a video game be intricate and lifelike enough to actually train a person to use real life weapons? Even more worryingly at the time, the game was followed up by 'Quake,' where the player shot human avatars with real players operating them. This took out the non human barrier making the game even more lifelike.
As a counter argument however, lots of insight was given in to the importance of games and how they can potential have many positive effects on society. It was argued that very little evidence has actually been produced showing connections between violence and video games with children. There are certain results showing that children are more immersed and adrenaline fuelled whilst gaming, but does this really prove or disprove that gaming was solely responsible for incidents such as Columbine. One person argued that for such an act to be committed, the two boys' mental state must have been unhealthy to begin with, and even if they had never played doom it was only a matter of time before the two killers acted on their sinister thoughts.
It was argued that gaming could be utilised as an important tool to educate children. Games with themes of war expose and prepare children to the harsh realities of human nature embedded in our history. With these realities of violence in mind, children can meditate on them and establish a separation between virtual game reality and actual reality. Certain games take this idea that games can educate the player and face the issues of morality and choice making in their games. 'Abe's Odyssey' from the 'Oddworld' franchise follows the journey of a Mudokon, who learns that because he is of a certain race he faces a threat from the processing plant he works at who have decided to put his species on the menu. At first he runs from the immediate danger in order to protect himself, but after realising he has a calling he makes the decision to go back and confront the prospect of death in order to save his people. This idea of moral decision making is present even more prominently in the game 'Fable' where the player has the choice to follow the path of a hero or of a villain. By exposing children to these kind of concepts perhaps they can reflect on the consequences of their actions.
Another point was raised was that some of the games considered to be the result of mindless violence are actually in their own ways revolutionary. The 'Grand Theft Auto' series took a whole new angle on gaming, allowing the player to take on their own identity and follow the story in their own way. In theory, a player could choose to kill nobody, follow the speed limit and stop at traffic lights. The fact the game glamorises gang culture often distracts people from the actual impact the game had on the industry, inventing a new open world genre. It is unfortunate that such a groundbreaking game is convoluted with negative contentions and subject matter.
In the end, the conclusion was made that we are generally fascinated by violence. It exists in many forms of media even dating back to the macabre sinister themes of children's literature. Gaming should be considered as wide a genre as film, and we should not assume every game is to be consumed by the younger generation. Some games, in particular 'Manhunt,' where given negative reviews and labeled as mindless 'snuff' games. Although companies such as Rockstar exploit this fascination with violence and crime simply to take lots of money from the consumer, games (like film and music) should be considered in my opinion an expressive art form. What is important is to be aware of the context in which the violence takes place and the reasoning for it. Many films are hard hitting and violent in order to convey cultural messages. Games should have this freedom of expression with age restrictions considered.
In conclusion, the documentary raised many interesting arguments which balanced and unbiased. We were offered a look at both sides of the argument and I can completely sympathise with the people who feel they are protecting our culture by speaking out against video game violence. Perhaps the politicians who see game violence as mindless exploitation would benefit from gaining an understanding of games as a creative platform for the expression of ideas on concepts.
We were recently given a short presentation by our Year tutor sharing an understanding of the copyright laws in the Uk. I will start by sharing a general understanding of the laws. Interestingly, there are no compulsory legal processes required to register your work to be copyright protected. In the UK this law applies automatically. If work is shared on the web however, it is a good idea to put somewhere "name © year." Generally, the creator owns their work's copyright. This can be the creative director, also the producer in film, or the studio who has funded the project.
Often controversially, within the music there is a culture of recycling or 'sampling' existing work in genre's such as Hip-hop and techno brava, which is very popular in Brazil. The question is whether sampling encourages fresh new creative work, or whether it simply produces uninspired throw-away media.
Perhaps one of the most famous examples of sampling is the album 'Paul's Boutique' by 'The Beastie Boys.' The album consisted of 105 song samples, which where mostly cleared but at very low prices compared to todays laws. Despite consisting of so many sound clips from existing media, the album received positive reviews.
The channel 'Sky Arts' explored sampling and file sharing within today's music culture with the program "Good Copy, Bad Copy.' An example they used of sampling was Jay-Z's 'The Black album', which was mashed together with the Beatle's famous 'The White Album' by Hip-hop artist 'Danger Mouse' to produce 'The Grey Album.' Here is an example of one of the tracks from the album which combines Jay-Z's '99 problems' with The Beatle's 'Helter-Skelter.' Even Sir Paul McCartney himself said he felt fine with the project, which must show some creative integrity toward's the artist of the album:
Taking the idea of sampling to new levels of creativity in my opinion is Gotye, shown creating the album 'Making Mirrors' in this video documentary:
What is interesting about Gotye's approach is that his samples are not taken from existing popular songs, but from obscure vinyl from decades gone by. This likely negates any copyright breaches and gives Gotye free reign with exciting and inspiring sounds. We see him in the video experimenting with world music, combining a Taiwanese traditional song with a sampled turkish drum sound. This is another interesting element of Gotye's creative process. He not only takes samples from existing songs but also samples the acoustic instruments he owns. We see him sampling a small harp and programming each note into a midi keyboard. This takes the original instrument out of context, giving it a more unique staccato sound as appose to a strumming sound as he explains how the harp would conventionally be played.
It seems that Gotye's intentions are not to take existing commercial songs and use them almost as a motif to sell his work, which we see in some modern chart music. It seems he simply shows a passion towards vintage and analog sounds which he applies creatively in his music. There are copyright laws which see this potential for sharing and recycling media in a creative context. In particular, the creative commons license encourages the idea of allowing others access to your work whilst giving credit to the creator. At the same time, it encourages the person who expands on your original idea to apply the same conditions to their take, so the that the original concept is passed on and creatively built-on with varied insight and input.
It could be argued that ownership is hard to establish. Simply look at genre in film. Common theme's are repeated countless times and some cases films are even referenced and quoted. Sergio Leone's 'Once Upon a Time in the West' famously referenced existing western classics in an ironic manner. On top of that, Tarantino shot his film 'Inglorious Basterds' in the distinctive style of Leone's western movies, showing wide picturesque valleys and then cutting to striking close-ups of the characters within the scene.
In conclusion, I believe that in a generation where many strong ideas have already been established, it is an equally exciting concept to see these ideas taken in to new contexts, resulting in original creative media.
Sphere
I recently read a science fiction novel titled ‘Sphere’ by Michael Crichton. I have seen parts of the film adaptation staring Dustin Hoffman, but hadn’t quiet seen enough to spoil the book. I had the general idea that the story was set deep under the ocean, and regarded a research team studying some kind of spherical alien artefact. The book itself had several strong concepts and themes running throughout. One of the prominent themes was psych analogy, the protagonist being a psychologist. With this came the theme of fact versus imagination and the subconscious self, most of the other researches belonging to a scientific background. The final concept that stood out for me was the whole idea of extra-terrestrial life, and whether we can even begin to comprehend other evolutionary developments beyond that found which is found on earth.
***SPOLER ALERT***
Regarding the plot, the protagonist Norman Johnson is introduced in a helicopter, flying over the Pacific Ocean to what sounds to be the sight of a commercial airline crash located in the middle of the sea. This crash site, it turns out, is believed to be the site of an alien spacecraft which has been (Judging by the coral growth on the ship) sitting on the seabed for somewhere between three hundred to a thousand years. Norman is reminded that he was once asked to write an official government report to prepare a response team in the event of alien confrontation. He saw the report as a joke and simply did it for the money, but in the story learns that the special team he even went as far to interview have been gathered and assembled for the operation at hand. This team consists of a mathematician and logician named Harry, a zoologist named Beth and a astrophysicist and planetary geologist named Todd, with the addition of a marine biologist named Arthur Levine who panics during the submarine decent and never makes it to crash site. Near the crash site, the Navy have assembled a large artificial habitat for the research team to live in while studying the strange craft.
At this point, theories on extra-terrestrial life are shared. As the team begin to prepare themselves for the possibility of communicating for the first time in human history with alien life, some very compelling argument are raised by members of the team. There is the knowledge that our species and life on our planet exists in three-dimensional space. Some believe there to be as much as eleven dimensions in existence. Perhaps an extra terrestrial life form could exist in some of these other dimensions we cannot perceive. This would mean that we would only see the creature in parts. Also, we communicate with visuals and sound. What if, originating from an entirely different evolutionary path, an alien creature communicated through scent, and there was no possible bridge for communication? This all fits with the idea that perhaps we lack imagination when it comes to envisioning alien life, as all we see when we consider intelligent life is the human species. Could we even begin to comprehend the physical appearance of a creature coming from a planet with an entirely different atmosphere? There was also the theory raised that our existence is very unlikely to occur more than once. The fact that we have evolved so far from small primitive organisms is miraculous in itself. Even with the vastness of the universe, the odds that life has grown so versatile on our planet are extremely low. Even our existence was likely determined by the death of the dinosaurs, and perhaps if they had not been wiped out, mammals would never have been given the chance to evolve in to such a dominant species. There is a final important factor, and that is: what if an alien life form was invincible therefore had no concept of death? Similarly, what if the creature shared none of our moral values, making it hostile?
On top of the gripping concepts involving evolution, there is also the theme of time travel. When exploring the ship, the crew learn quickly that the vessel was actually of human origin, but from the future. Human symbols around the ship give this away, as well as the metal compounds used for the ship which contained familiar elements, yet are technologically out of our reach in terms of how to bond the particular elements. The final giveaway is the flight log, which strongly suggested the ship has been sent through a black hole, justifying the strong structural reinforcement of the ship and the heavy use of led to prevent radiation penetrating the spacecraft’s interior. The theory is explained that some physicists believe that a black hole can be used in space travel, to skip to different parts of the universe, or even to different times. Again more interesting concepts being raised by the book, which could be applied in other medias such as film and game.
Within the time travelling vessel, the researches uncover a large metallic sphere. This is immediately believed to be of alien origin. After setting up surveillance cameras around the sphere, the team begin to ponder how to get it open. Eventually Harry is seen entering the sphere, and he re-emerges unaware of his own name. This side effect soon wears off, yet something about Harry seems strange, as if the interaction with the sphere has in some way affected him. Soon, plans to re-surface are terminated when a storm hits their location and surface conditions cause the support vessels up top to pull out. This means the team are stranded for a predicted seven days much to the delight of also mean the crew has to cut off communication with the surface. Despite this disconnection, a computer monitor within the habitat begins to flash up sequences of numbers. Harry being a mathematician eventually cracks the code. The message sent turns out to be from the sphere, and is translated as a very childlike sentence. The sphere introduces itself as simply ‘Jerry.’ At this time, the research crew begin to notice strange species of squid and shrimp emerging on what at first a lifeless seabed. Fascinated by a cloud of exotic white jellyfish, one of the naval crew members heads out in a dive suit and is killed by the swarm as they eat through her suit. Things turn even worse, as a giant squid begins to attack the station and threaten the lives of those inside. The team gather that these sea monsters are creations of Jerry’s. Gradually, all of the other crewmembers are killed, Leaving only Norman, Harry and Beth. Norman and Harry continue to try and reason with Jerry, but in very adolescent manner continues to send in what he calls a ‘manifestation.’ This is where the strong physiological theme really kicks in. After re-translating the orginal codes sent by the sphere, Norman realizes a mistake, the original message now reading ‘my name is Harry.’ Norman works out that the manifestations are from Harry’s nightmares. He is reminded of a previous conversation where Harry admitted to being frightened by the film ‘Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea,’ in particularly the giant squid confrontation. When ‘Jerry’ addresses the team, it is not in fact the sphere speaking, but a dark area of Harry’s mind which manifests thoughts of terror, and creates them in physical form.
After Beth and Norman put Harry to sleep, the threatening manifestations continue, causing Beth to accuse Norman of having entered the cube with no recollection, and try to put him to sleep with the same anaesthetics used on Harry. After reviewing a surveillance tape however, Norman learns Beth in fact entered the sphere as well as Harry. This causes Beth to enter a mode of manic impulsive behaviour, locking Norman in room and depriving him of oxygen. Norman escapes however and he himself enters the sphere. When he speaks to the voice inside the sphere, the voice explains how Bears are intelligent creatures with a brain that equals that of a human’s in size. The sphere explains that what sets a human apart from a bear is the ability to imagine, and mentally recreate the past and the future. Norman eventually realizes he is speaking to his own subconscious mind in the sphere, and leaves with the ability to manifest his thoughts. Because Norman is a psychologist who has explored his own subconscious, he is not overpowered by his negative thoughts meaning he does not produce threatening manifestations. He considers the fact that because Harry is a man of logic, his manifestations where created to make his fears plausible. Beth’s manifestation was of an underwater cyclone. Because she is a zoologist who is not frightened by physical creatures, her manifestation was of an unrelenting force. Norman considers that each person has a shadow self, which produces negative and frightening thoughts, and those who dismiss it, are often consumed by it. Again, this psychological theme offered more interesting concepts. Because of our subconscious mind and a common inability to control frightening and negative thoughts, the sphere was a very threatening entity to our race.
In conclusion, I thought Crichton’s novel was well crafted and there were some very clear and interesting themes which he put across. These themes have helped inform me of new and exciting concepts which could be used when creating narrative and channelling inspiration for projects within my course.
