205MC ASSESSMENT

NING YAO
6676515
In recent years, a new and fast growing industry quickly catch people’s eyes. The rapid

development of game industry let people see the huge commercial value and wide

development potential of this new industry. Actually, game industry has a long history, the

first video game was made in around 1958 to 1959, but in that decade people didn’t have

enough attention on this kind of game even the first computer born in years later

(Rabin,2009). At the end of the 19th century and the early 20th century, computer science and

technology has a rapid development, a new revolution in information electronics is happened

in decades, and the game industry can be called one of the fastest growing industry in recent

ten years. You can review within 10 years, compare what happened in film industry and what

happened in game industry. Now and few years in the future is the era of mobile internet,

mobile internet development still will play a leading role in the development of the game,

game Industry is the one of the main sources of the mobile internet. On the other hand, these

few year game industry get more and more criticize of the society, but we also can say that

the good news is the whole game industry gained recognition. The way of more people look

at game industry tends to rational. And all of these reasons make game industry develop so

fast at this century. And these reasons make people in-depth understanding and analysis the

content of the game as a new digital media, such as film, TV series and advertising and so on.

This essay will deal with the following aspects of the narrative, factual and fictional

construction and representational of game and analysis how different kind of game influence

different audience of game and the game player. In the second place, I also get my own

experience as a few year game player to talk about some my own analysis.
The first part of the analysis will examine about the narrative of game, before analysing

narrative in games it is necessary to point out about game is a new form of storytelling. We

have to remember that game is a completely different kind of media compare to any other

medium we have encountered before; therefore, it is unfair to compare the narrative in games

to films, TV series and books and then say the narrative in games is no good. The narrative in

game is not bad, it is just different from the rest. The narrative in game is a new form of

storytelling, it uses game player’s imagination to tell the story, however it is possible for you

to have some control over how the player’s thought and imagination go, and you can tell a

story in game, like never before. As a new digital media, someone think the most important

thing about the game is the mechanics, but I think narrative is also a significant part about the

game. An important thing about games is how we define player and viewer and what is the

different between player and viewer. Is it new digital game based on films or films based on

games (Crawford, 2008). There is an amazing game we can use for a case study which is

Warcraft: the beginning (2016). Talking about this film, most of people know this film

because there is a more famous online game call “Warcraft”. And I believe that more than

half people watch this film because of the game not the actor, the plot or something else.

Why the game Warcraft became so famous in these 10 years, a very important point is the

narrative of the huge world or we can say they are telling a very attractive and fascinating

story to every game player. The game is so popular and hot that many game company try to

imitate “Warcraft” even copy something from it. “Warcraft” use the best story and the best

game technology in that time to attract different kind of players, different audience may have

different understanding of same narrative, but it makes sense. The critical thing of the

succeed of Warcraft is they make a virtual but exciting and full of temptations world in a

digital game. If players don’t want to spend a lot of time on the virtual game, then we can say

this game is not successful. Blizzard, the company of Warcraft make a huge and real story
line for every player and the most important thing is you can join the story. It is totally

different from book, film or TV, they are all forms of passive narrative, it means that the

viewer do not have any involvement in it. Game is using a new way to tell a story to the

game audience, game player. The way of tell a story not only use the frame of game, but also

more depend on player’s imagination and faculty of understanding. There is a word that we

usually talk about is context, if some medium can put viewer or player in a context that will

be best for narrative, but the story itself is not a context, the virtual world in game is a good

context for people to achieve that. And a good game always make player fell he is actually a

part of the story, it is very hard to doing this in game. Game try to give player more and

more freedom in the virtual world and when the player gets enough control he can be a

narrator in that game. As a game player, I must say that narrative of a game is so important to

attract more people to play. There are so many ways to attract new player, but a good

storytelling can keep players playing game. In summary, make a game is not too hard, but

make a game to tell a story perfectly is hard.

The second part is about the factual and fictional construction in game. As a kind of virtual

medium, game can easily create lots of factual and fictional things, so we put it all together to

analysis it because sometimes it is negative but it also can be positive. In most of games we

always try to use the term ‘fiction’, game can create everything you want include some basic

rules and facts. For a simple example, why some researcher said that game can bring young

teenager capable of violence, this issue has been talked by few years. The only reason makes

them say that is because they are truly some fictional construction in game and sometimes

they give bad influence to players. The famous game like “CSGO” and “Call of Duty” is first

person shooter game, this kind of game full of violence, blood, zombies and other elements.
We cannot say that these elements make more crime, but the fact is that these elements do

have played an important role in inducing the criminal crime. However, this cannot represent

all fictional construction in game.

Recently there is a big news happened in the game industry. Not long ago, Facebook spend 2

billion dollar finished an acquisition of Oculus VR, the most representative of virtual reality

application development company, make this virtual reality of boom heating up again. And

for game players and computer and video game personnel, the concept of VR (Virtual

Reality) is not strange. Most people do not need to read the official rigorous definition, they

have been through all kinds of science fiction feeling the possibilities of VR technology, in a

most straightforward way: in the future, game can make you feel immersive, they can create a

real virtual world. If you try VR for once time, you will totally have convinced by this

technology. In the VR world, there is nothing real, nothing factual, all the things and all the

elements is virtual. Talking about the fiction construction, we can forget a film called The

Matrix, although The Matrix is not the first nor the sole, but this film is a great hero to

popularize the concept of VR. A lot of science fiction like described some technology

become a double-edged sword, alert people the harmfulness of its over development. The

most extreme case of virtual reality technology is the world of the film The Matrix. If unreal

world can provide an identical even more ideal and perfect experience for you, and how

many people will keep looking for the so-called real and choose to leave this illusory world?

Even you did not realize your so-called “reality” itself is simulated by the game technology.

Now people talking about VR, just like people talking about smart phone many years ago.

There is no doubt that it is the trend of the future, it is the inevitable choice of all walks of

life. Even people know that there is totally fictitious, there can be some pornographic and

violence elements mixed in that. As a normal people and a game player, the choice for me or
an ordinary man can only be accepting something better. Just like a movie slot in The Matrix,

“I clearly know the steak is a peace of code, but the program let me feel it fair and sweet, so,

where is the different between virtual and real? Why can’t I choose a more comfortable way?

VR’s depiction of the future is very beautiful, but it could not hide some existing problems.

We need to analysis it fair and objective, it already involved philosophy problems and a lot of

practical problems. These problems will appear as the technology development and it also

will solve as the technology development. Predictably it is impossible to stop the footsteps

even virtual reality technology has existential risks and maybe cause huge social changes. In

a board sense, its applications are not limited to games, it can cause earth-shaking changes in

every field, but we have a big reason to believe that it will first apply to game field. The most

crucial point made so far is the virtual reality technology development is more meaningful

than all the discussion of factual and fictional. That is also why I choose game as a medium

context to analysis this factor, VR will change our life in the near future.

The final part of the analysis will consider the representational in game. Many scholars

believe representations as constructions. A key concern in media study of representation is

with the way in which representations are made to seem natural.

According to Berg (2014) there over 210 million Americans play video game very often.

Video game is an approach which people could representation themselves in media, such as

gender, identity, race and so on. In video game industry, the players are an active participant

and can be represented themselves in the game world. The first be discussed in this essay is

gender in games. Berg (2014) stated considered that equal representation between male and

female is a challenge in video game. “Mass Effect 3” could be an example of this problem,

in this video game if players choose characters without gendered pronouns, players cannot
see different between male and female. Female players still facing the majority video game

designs for male players, because in some games the leading characters are male which

represent a male and masculine character. However, according to the ESA research (2013),

the data demonstrated that the American gamer population consists 47%female and 53%

male players. Therefore, when video game only has male character which representing

masculine, this stereotypes limit females playing in video game. Additionally, male players

do not have representation problems when they play those games, the female players could

have problems when they want to represent themselves in some games.

A stereotype is a character usually used in video game in order to sell a particular video game

to a certain group of people (Vermeulen and Van, 2016). The most stereotype character is

male hero, such as the video game “Call of Duty”, the role of player is a male solder in the

World War II who can save the world. This video game represents a male hero, which is

stereotype character. Therefore, stereotype in video game are still barring the freedom in

female players. In same video games female often as sex objects, who represent to entertain

and titillate the male players (Burgess, and Stermer, 2007), such as the video game “GTA”,

the leading characters are male, they could go striclub. It could attract male players but

female players may be mot play this kind of game. The consequences of stereotype in video

games could have important influence for players’ attitudes and later life choices.

Representations are always a construction in accordance with the produces. Representation

and race in video game are still having misrepresentation (Wohn, 2011). The representation

of black culture in some video games is animalistic, subservient, violent and dangerous. For

example, the video game “Resident Evil” and “GTA”. When players play those games the
misrepresentation of black culture could mislead players in real life. Therefore, video game

players do not just buy the game, but also share cultural experience.

In conclusion, game has already become a completely different medium to any other medium

like book and TV, game as an important element of entertainment in human’s lives, it also

develops with the development of internet and information technology constantly. It is worth

noting that games are not like movies, movies and games are using different way to tell a

story to the viewer and player. But compare with a story was told by someone, player will

enjoy a story which he can joined and experienced. Briefly, it can be said that this is the most

attractive part of game, you can experience a new form of storytelling. By the development of

virtual and reality technology, player can taste of a kind of new world. In VR, narrative and

fiction can be perfect match, player can both experience the interactive storytelling and the

most successful virtual world. For the whole game industry, all good news in 2016, virtual

reality technology let them go into a new era. If you say there are still some problem with

nowadays video game, that must about the representation, game can do many things which

films and other medium cannot do. But at the same time, it also brings some problem like

race and gender problem. However, we need to consider the benefits and the problems of

game objectively. We should be bold to accept the new things bring from game industry, and

also boycott the negative influence from game like pornographic and violence. Sometimes a

good game with a good narrative can make player addictive, on the other hand, a

misrepresentation also can make a game reach a dead end. To sum up, game industry has a

bright future but there are still many issues waiting for game designers.
Reference:

Burgess, M., Stermer, S. and Burgess, S. (2007). Sex, Lies, and Video Games: The Portrayal
of Male and Female Characters on Video Game Covers. Sex Roles, 57(5-6), pp.419-433.
Crawford, G. (2008). ‘It's in the game’: sport fans, film and digital gaming. Sport in Society,
11(2-3), pp.130-145.
Entertainment Software Association. (2013). Essential facts about the computer and video
game
industry. Retrieved from http://t.cn/zH1TqBR

Rabin, S. (2009). Introduction to Game Development. 1st ed. Boston: Course Technology.

Vermeulen, L. and Van Looy, J. (2016). “I Play So I Am?” A Gender Study into Stereotype
Perception and Genre Choice of Digital Game Players. Journal of Broadcasting &
Electronic Media, 60(2), pp.286-304.
Wohn, D. (2011). Gender and Race Representation in Casual Games. Sex Roles, 65(3-4),
pp.198-207.