Microsoft Word - Teen - The Evolution of the Player

1

Teen

Evolution of the PlayerThe player is born without

the ability to play. They participate in the game, but in thebeginning there was never enough

scope

for play.To

play

is to be able to

actively react

to a rigid system or structure, or to usecunning and skill to “play the game”, or to play in some individual manner. There mustbe an allowance for flexibility.In the beginning, the player is tightly bound and disconnected. Perhaps they aren’t evenaware that they’re a player yet, but something inside of them is calling to beawakened…a tiny voice; barely audible and alone.

Pong

has very little in the way of scope. Scope is like the ‘grey area between rules’,allowing the player to move freely. One curious participant twirled a paddle, giving lifeto a severe, white rectangle on the screen.

Their

movements were strictly dictated by the

other

participant’s actions. There was no way to disconnect from the ‘Y-axis’, and floataround in a kind of ‘freedom of choice’. The game controlled

the player

, more thananything, and the player liked it.Slowly though, over the games’ short history, the voice became louder, the playerbecame warmer, bulging under thick straps, as if fire was boiling an egg; the hot waterengulfing it and bubbling up around it, congealing the yoke; softening up the shell.

Space Invaders

allowed the player to pick, to some degree, which aliens to shoot downfirst, in the mobile phalanx that slowly typed its way down the screen, a derivative of therainbow layer cake from

Breakout

, in which the player had some scope to influence thetrajectory of the ball by turning the paddle (now much larger than in

Pong

) so the ballcould collide either in the middle that pushes it straight up, or at the edge that sends it off at an angle, or even from the side of the paddle. Eventually there was a real feeling of freedom and power in games like

Defender

that let the player glide through a wide,scrolling screen with the ability to shoot those pesky aliens with hyper laser beams thatstretched beyond the visible spectrum, to rescuing human hostages, killing humanhostages, or warping to other parts of space.

2The egg began to crack…a glimmer of consciousness breached. The player receivedchoices, interaction became more diverse, and the language structure of the gameevolved.Consider a game as a language system that functions to communicate with you, and viceversa, for you to communicate with the system (or two players communicating with eachother through the system).With

Pong

maybe the player is simply saying

“Hello”,

each time their ball registers aconnection with the player’s rectangle. So the conversation goes…

“Hello to you. Helloback. Hello to you. Hello back…”

ad infinitum, like a microphone test for the real show.Or perhaps you could interpret it as two mouths spouting their particular point of viewand not wanting to compromise; ‘player* 1’ says this, but ‘player 2’ says that, and theynever arrive at a compromise. The limitations of a given language system directlyinfluences what a person is able to say.But like in face-to-face conversation, there is a moment where we ‘slip’…and itopens up a hole in our defenses, allowing the enemy in, allowing them to create somekind of logic that we might think unfair, but nevertheless…they scored a goal; they getthat point.Last but not least, consider

how

we speak, through the physical control pads,keyboards and mice. Buttons usually have letters (the classic ‘A, B, X, Y’ arrangement),or numbers printed on, that indicate their individual place in an overall system. Motionand stylus pressure control are just other forms of the players’ ‘voice box’. Many gamesof the ‘Rhythm’ genre re-produce these linguistic signs on-screen, so play is activelyabout speaking with a language of contact and timing.This linguistic perspective of so-called ‘gameplay’ will underpin how I define manythings through the course of this essay, including narrative, identity, and the overall valueof games as something we can personally relate to, on a number of levels.I intend to offer players an insight into the possibilities of a ‘common tongue’ fortalking about their game experiences, one that makes sense and allows for a more diversevocabulary, beyond “I liked it because it was fun.”

(*the term ‘player’ is used in this sense to denote

participation

, not the application of free-thinking and active cognitive choice. Pong does not allow for a player, in the sense of optionsother than the standard movements.)

12

Evolving from

Pong

, consider

Breakout

. The conversation is not flowing anymore.There is now a tangible threat to understanding; a blockade.

3Frustrated from the conversation going nowhere in

Pong

, the player is now tryingto break out of this futile cycle. Now a larger, orange rectangle, the player is offered thechance to get rid of its opponent for good. ‘The other’ is a pacifist, unable to adequatelyrespond. Or perhaps what needs to be said lies beyond this wall, and the only way tospeak out is to remove the obstacle blocking that free flow of thought, to reunite withconsciousness. This is the beginning of the player’s power to deconstruct space. Relyingon the inner structures of the screen, and coming at the enemy from a variety of angles,the players’ ball pivots off the paddle, hitting the sides of the enclosure at angles toslowly but meticulously chip away at the enemy. Finally, the players’ perseverance paysoff, as they escape from their mental prison.Early shooters such as

Space Invaders

speak with the player in another way. They are notslowly and coolly

de-constructing

the enemy’s argument in these encounters. They’redestroying them altogether.Shooters harness rawness, emotion and anger, funneling that energy into thecreation of nothing. They generally require less intellectual engagement, but allow us tocleanse the screen of junk, leaving only a pleasing blank space and easing ourparanoia…until the next wave of monsters or aliens appear. Rock music and heavy metalare friends with shooters. Sometimes we just need to vent; destroy; release.Both of these games, like many arcade hits, don’t allow room for contemplation,reflection or conscious/subconscious choice. There is just a constant loop cycle of actionsand reactions.Simply the act of

moving

in a game is to speak with the embedded language constructedfor us that consists of the games’ rules. We speak with the objects in the system, andform greater relationships and rhythms within the parameters we find ourselves in.Like in our more permanent world, the earth, the act of walking around is the act of ‘being’ in the world; our feet touch the ground, and we interact with the physicalenvironment; an organic vessel allowing us access to greater choices, and things to do.But is there ‘being’ in a game? How can a game be alive? Often, people who talk aboutgames sideline, or even forget the presence of the player*. The person playing the gameis alive. Their mind gets transported into the game, shattered into images and becomesstrangely omniscient, gaining powers of possession and interpretation. Their mind andemotions blend with the world; absorbed by it.Even though the animations in games are pre-determined, that stuttering,fumbling failure that is all too human will display quite clearly the ‘being’ inside thegame, much more so than the uncanny valleys, and shiny skin of the imposters; therobots.It works the other way too. In a game like

Super Metroid

, you can either take part in thegame, or you can

play

the game.

Playing

the game requires conscious awareness and theability to think for your self. It also requires ‘scope’ (free space) in the structure of agames’ language. Scope offers up different paths, or a looser structure, enabling different