Playing (with) Videogames

James Newman

Abstract: This paper examines the practices and activities of videogame

fans online. In scrutinising a variety of player-produced texts including
walkthroughs, fan art, fiction, ’theorising’, Frequently Asked Questions
lists (FAQs), and even fan-games, the article seeks not only to highlight
the creativity and vibrancy of the participatory culture of videogame
fandom but also to examine the ways in which production of such texts
and the ensuing discussion and debate are used by players to generate
and communicate their identity within the community of ’hardcore’ game
fans (often known as otaku) and modify the terms of engagement with
the game. In this way, the paper interrogates player-produced texts as
examples of the involvement and activity of players in the construction of
videogames’ meaning and as a means of problematising discussions of
the pleasures of gameplay.

The
myth
continuing In
of the solo
both
popular and academic discourse, it has become quite
common, totalk of videogaming as a solitary activity. The focus on the
player experience of the single-player is perhaps inevitable, though there can be
no doubt that it betrays a lack of engagement with or immersion in the
cultures of gaming and the variety of ways in which games are actually
used irrespective of the intentions of their designers. If we take even a
cursory glance at some recent titles, we find that Final Fantasy X-2
(2003), Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap (2004) or Metal Gear Solid 3:
Snake Eater (2004),2 for example, are all apparently designed for the
single player, exploring and battling alone against the enemies,
obstacles and spaces of the gameworld. Certainly, the interactive
potential of these games appears to be limited by the single joypad,
literally prohibiting the input of more than one player at a time.
Moreover, as Aarseth has noted, the ’man against the environment’
theme in which a single character is charged with the task of saving the
day and restoring the previously disrupted equilibrium, is such a
prominent theme in videogames,3 and indeed pervades much western
narrative, that many games seem to offer no scope for the involvement
of others.

The apparently solitary nature of play has been seized upon by detractors
of videogames. While certain lone, private activities such as journal
writing may be valourised,4the videogame has been positioned as an
anti-social force, encouraging players to withdraw. As Jessen has noted
 49

Serious criticism is levelled at the influence of the medium on

children’s social relations. It is a common assumption that computer
games lead to children becoming socially isolated, all in their
separate rooms where they engage in a lone struggle in the artificial
universes of the games. In other words, the computer destroys social
relations and playing.55
To their detractors, videogames are not merely solitary experiences but
are seen to be isolating. As a result, they not only appeal to loners, but
also create them - thereby giving rise to the popular conception of
videogame fans as reclusive outsiders, distant and disengaged from
society, both unwilling and incapable of interacting with others.
What seems to differentiate the gamer is the absence of friends and
alternative leisure opportunities; heavy gamers resort to solitary
media for distraction and entertainment. Our evidence is rather
limited on this point but, clearly, video games are an activity, which,
like watching TV and videos, is something kids prefer to do when
they have no other more social options. Family and sibling play is
infrequent, mostly involves playing with brothers, and is more
frequent in the occasional player groups.~’
For many commentators, it appears that videogames are imbued with a

quite insidious potency. The power of videogames seems such that

players are prohibited from incorporating them
into their lives in a
balanced controllable manner. As such, engagement with the
or

videogame brings about inevitable harm. In this willingness to view

games as addictive and drug-like, we must note an equal and somewhat
patronising unwillingness to acknowledge any sophistication in players’
use of media. Jessen notes that, since their introduction in the 1 980s,
home computers have given rise to widespread concerns that young
people would be ’seduced’ by them.’The apotheosis of this stance may
be found in the pessimistic futurism disseminated in popular media such
as Channel 4&dquo;s Serious Fun documentary8 that points to the videogame’s

presentation of ordered, rule-governed and ultimately, controllable

spaces that place the player in a central, masterful role. Where the ’real
world’ is complex, chaotic and fuzzy, game life is apparently simple with
achievable victory states. This stance is a familiar one to those
conversant with 1 990s musings on Virtual Reality in which concerns were
that the real world would be reconfigured as inferior and undesirable,
unable to match the experiential pleasures of the VR environments in
which would we spend as increasing portion of our lives.9
The positioning of the videogame player as reclusive and socially inept
raises important questions. Two presuppositions areimportant. First, are
videogames really used as alternatives to social interaction? Second, do
the ways videogames are actually used and played support the
common-sense notion of gaming as solitary and isolating? In their study
of videogame uses and gratifications, Sherry et al. present findings that
challenge these taken-for-granted assumptions:
Individuals who spend the longest hours playing were more likely to
_______
report playing for Diversion (e.g. ’I play video games whenI have
 50

other things to do’ and ’I play video games whenI am bored’) and
Social Interaction (e.g. ’My friends andI use video games as a
reason to get together’). 10
While at least part of the pleasure of videogame play can certainly be
understood in terms of its displacement of other, perhaps more
mundane, activity, to consider videogames as merely providing diversion
from other people is simplistic. Rather, directly contradicting the idea of
the solitary player isolated from social contact Sherry et aL encourage us
to consider videogaming as highly social activity. Certainly, research
conducted by Funk,&dquo; Emes’z and Kestenbaum and Weinstein 13
concludes that the hypothesised link between frequent videogame play,
social withdrawal and isolation cannot be supported with current
findings. It follows that the popular perception of the videogame player
as an isolated, withdrawn loner is based more on presupposition and
anecdote than on the findings of scholarly study.
Videogame players have been quick to parody and exploit the
positioning of gamers as socially inept and removed from normality. The
website www.uncleclive.co.uk hosts a number of images including
mock-up PlayStation 2 game art for’Social contact simulator for
gamers’, for example. Sony, too, played upon the popular discourse in
their early PlayStation TV and print advertising campaigns. Presenting
’SAPS’ (the Society Against PlayStation) as an organisation attempting to
educate parents and potential purchasers to the dangers of exposure to
gaming, the campaigns clearly mocked and ridiculed laboratory-based
effects studies. Curiously, Sony would come to implicitly endorse some
form of media effects discourse with their PlayStation 2 ’Emotion Engine’
marketing and branding strategies. 14
Fans media As both Jenkins15 and Brooker16 note, fans are not merely consumers but
as

producers producers of media texts and considerable creativity and effort is

expended on the creation of, for example, fan fiction, fan art and fan
music. Like other media, videogames provide a focus for critical
discussion, talk and textual production, thereby acting as a pivotal point
in the social and cultural lives of many players. Fan websites such as
www.nintendoland.com encourage the production of prose and poetry
that embellishes and supports the characters and narratives of popular
Nintendo game series including Super Mario Bros (1985-present), The
Legend of Zelda (1987-present) and Metroid (1986-present). Currently,
two varieties of fan fiction (’fanfic’) are available. The first follows a
traditional format and centres on the embellishment and development of
narrative themes introduced throughout the games, but the second is
quite different. A sub-site dedicated to the Legend of Zelda series also
hosts a number of ’interactives’. Here, fanfics are presented as branching
hypertexts. Some ’interactives’ extend extant narratives, such as ’The
Search for Koholint’ which positions itself as the ’unofficial sequel to The
Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening’ (1993) and all are highly intertextual,
often bringing together elements, actions, characters and locales from
the various Legend of Zelda videogames and beyond. Yet, for all their
novelty, the hypertextuality of the interactives is quite limited, and the
 51

is frequently restricted to pressing the web browser’s ’Back’

’interactivity’
button in order to reselect the correct option.
Just as production in non-videogame fan cultures, the
with textual
community judges quality and value of contributions not only in
the terms
of their own creativity and invention but also in terms of their
compatibility with the events, characters, situations and narratives
already
encoded with the ’canon’. Delineating the canon demands considerable
investigation and intelligence on the part of the fan and is a matter that
prompts much analysis on discussion boards. An interesting dynamic is
revealed here in which fan communities produce texts whose very
purpose is to push at the boundaries of the game while simultaneously
any such contributions are judged in terms of their compatibility with the
canon, and the integrity of these newly constructed borders is policed
most vehemently. Interestingly, the inclusion of a given text (whether
fan-produced or commercially available) in the canon is frequently
contingent on issues of production that are often invisible or at least not
widely publicised to the player. The Sonic the Hedgehog (1990-present)
canon, for example, does not encompass every official Sonic game
release. Here, according to members on the ’Sonic the Hedgehog Area
51’ board at least, it is not the presence of Sonic characters, situations
or locales that define a title worthy of inclusion and, by inference,
authentic and valuable. Rather, it is the involvement of the originating
developers ’Sonic Team’ (originally a division of Japanese developer
Sega headed by Yuji Naka). Responses to theorising about the Chaos
Emeralds that appear throughout the Sonic series, which appeared on
The Mobius Forum message board, reveal much about the delineation of
the canon and the dynamic that at once encourages creativity and
productivity but insists that it be constrained within carefully defined
parameters.
Tsk, tsk. Haven’t you learned yet? Only games that Sonic Team
developed count in the storyline. That is Sonic 1, Sonic CD (if you
wonder why, it’s because Ohshima directed it), Sonic 3, Sonic
Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2.
Also note, it was Sonic Team who had started development of Sonic
R, but had left the programming duties to Traveller’s Tales due to
time constricitons (Yuji Naka was still producer mind you), so it
&dquo;counts&dquo;. In my mind, the only legitimate &dquo;non-Sonic Team&dquo; game
was Sonic the Fighters. Though it was developed by AM2, Naka

thought the idea was a hoot and was behind the project all the way.
I don’t think the same can be said about ANY other games.

(Posted 31 March 2002) 17

Elsewhere in the analysis of the same issue, fans return to the ’original’
sources (that is, the Japanese manuals that accompany the canonical

games) for clarification thereby discarding even the official Sega of

America (SoA) and Sega Europe translations. Indeed there is an evident
disregard for those involved in the localisation process whose lack of
care in preserving the continuity and integrity of the canon as envisioned

by the originators clearly aggravates fans. PR interviews indicating the

 52

age of Sonic in the various games in the series prove particularly

contentious, prompting theories including time travelling so as to make
the apparently incompatible ages of Sonic and the time elapsed between
games marry. However, for some the source of the information renders
any apparent controversy inconsequential:
Psh, this is a quote from a guy from Sega Europe... They’re even
further out of the loop than SoA, and we all know how much stuff
they&dquo;ve pulled out of their asses that doesn’t correspond with Sonic
Team.I wouldn’t automatically assume this guy’s words to be gospel
just cuz he’s on Sega’s payroll. The guy who called Amy &dquo;Sally&dquo; in
Sonic CD was an &dquo;&dquo;official Sega person&dquo; too...

Turner probably exaggerating anyway. Either purposely making

was
the difference 10 years to emphasise that it was Sonic’s 1 Oth
anniversary, just off-handedly calling him a &dquo;five-year-old&dquo; to
or

suggest he was less mature back then, not literally five.

Note that Sonic Jam (1997) explicitly states his age as 16. Yet
according to this theory, Sonic’s age changes between the three
games on Jam (not to mention he’d presumably be 11in Sonic
World?).
Nah, Sonic’s always been portrayed as a teenager (even if they can’t
nail down the exact age ...). No use changing that assumption based
on an obscure quote from a PR guy in an old magazine

(Posted to The Mobius Forum, 9 April 2003)

Knowledge of and engagement with the processes of production goes
deeper still than an awareness of the authorship and a, perhaps
misplaced or overstated, notion of the involvement of individuals in
development and design. Pre-release screenshots are scoured for
indications of abandoned levels, characters or modifications of graphics.
Moreover, for some more technically-savvy fans, the code of games
reveals many palimpsests that may be able to shed some light on these
pre-release directions. Within the released and therefore publicly
available code, it is often possible to find the remnants of graphic
designs that were sidelined or superseded. These are not secrets
designed to be found by avid players or acolytes of the game and cannot
be accessed via the game itself. Rather, these are simply materials that
remain unused in the game but undeleted from the code and that may
onlybe revealed by probing the code via PC, for example. However,
while the revelation of these palimpsests may represent a considerable
technical achievement and is evidence of a dedication and interest in the
very workings of the game not to mention an awareness of the processes
of production, they do not always simply give up their heritage or neatly
provide answers to fans’ questions. It may be considered that this is
precisely compatible with the fans’ desires. The revelation of ambiguous
graphic designs, for example, encourages deliberation and analysis as to
what they may have been, how they might have been deployed, why they
were unused. This, in turn, gives rise to a separate strand of fan writing:
the ’theory’. Among fans of Sega’s Sonic the Hedgehog series, fan
 53

writing may be differentiated in terms of its compatibility with and

closeness to the Theories that attempt to posit explanations for
canon.

apparent inconsistencies in the games’ narrative continuity are thus

differentiated from ’fanfics’ that are more fanciful and imaginative in
their scope. The extract below taken from the ’Missing Sonic 2 Levels’
webpage illustrates the technical savvy, inventiveness and rigorous
research upon which such theories are often founded:
Sonic 2 Time Travel Theory
So far, Sonic CD is the only Sonic game with a time travel feature.
But asI recall, Sonic Team was going to put time travel into Sonic 2
too! So, they designed levels with TT in mind. Sources claim that
each level was supposed to be set in a certain time period, however,
that may be incorrect.I think I’ve found the proof Sonic 2 was going
to feature a Sonic CD-type time travel (without the Past). Take a look
at first five levels in Sonic 2 Beta ...

I may be going too far, but- listen to the music. 01 certanly sounds
like a Good Future remix of 00. And 03 sounds like a Bad Future. As
for Wood Zone, it uses the same music as the two Metropolis Zones,
but that’s okay, they would remix it in a later date.
Talking about Wood Zone- its design and idea are pretty pointless; a
forest with conveyor belts and hollow trees? But when you look at it
differently (what a factory looked like in the past) then it makes
sense. And the hollow tree was going to be a warp tube from

Metropolis- try jumping on it. You can’t. You can’t jump on warp
pipes too! And speaking of Metropolis, why are there two Metropolis
Zones? They are both Bad Future. One of them was supposed to be
a Good Future, which is basicaly Bad Future with graphics changed.
Wait something ainlt right here ...know. Wood Zone only has two
...

acts, but Metropolis has three . This is the real proof. In Sonic CD,
act three always goes on in the future. And, as far asI can think (not
very far) 01 and 03 zones have act 3 too! So, depending on how
you completed acts 1 and 2, act 3 was a good or bad future.18

Filling the gaps

Inconsistencies in the narratives of the various texts that comprise the
seized upon by fans and provide an ideal focus for their
canon are
creative and discursive activity. Keen not only to expose inconsistencies
and thereby signal their intimate knowledge of the games, but also to
explain and remedy them, fan producers go to considerable lengths. This
appears in part motivated by a desire to imprint themselves upon the
canon thereby becoming closer to the object of their fandom, but is also

clearly directed by a desire to validate the vision of the Sonic Team and
Yuji Naka in particular. To leave an inconsistency unchecked would be
to admit the imperfection of the Sonic mythos. Again, the task of the fan
is a dual one that pushes and explores at the edge of the canon,
expanding, modifying, enriching, while also preserving, policing and
remedying. Theorising may thus be read as an attempt to maintain or
restore perfection in the canon and protect the object of the fan’s interest
from detractors’ charges of inferiority in comparison with other games or
 54

series. This rivalry is particularly noticeable across console platforms with

fans offering allegiance to a given hardware platform and thereby a
particular game, series, collection of characters or even development
houses or individual designers. This allegiance to specific games perhaps
reflects hardware choices, or may indeed inform them. For example, it is
as commonplace to find ’Sega’ and ’Nintendo’ fans extolling the virtue
of the platform-exclusive Sonic and Mario titles respectively as it is to find
fans of the individual games defending the hardware or platform
manufacturer or their own purchase of a given console. Incidentally, the
comparison of consoles is usually configured in terms of published
technical specifications, which are at best misleading and not especially
revealing in terms either of actual performance or gameplay opportunity,
or are concerned with the exclusivity of forthcoming titles. Either way, the
fan’s knowledge can be seen to extend beyond play to the gaming
technologies that enable these experiences and, most importantly, to an
understanding of the contemporary videogames business, its publishing
arrangements and the existence and importance of exclusivity and
platform-specificity. To protect the canon against charges of
inconsistency and to assert the superiority of the chosen titles or series,
then, is to justify one’s financial and emotional investment. In the
example below, one fan producer attempts to justify the unexplained
change in locale that occurs between two texts in the Sonic the
Hedgehog canon. Specifically, the localised US conversion of Sonic &
Knuckles (S3&K) was set on the planet ’Mobius’, whereas its sequel Sonic
Adventure (SA1 ) was set on Earth. Not content with merely posting a
theory linking the two titles, this fan has produced their own game that
allows players to explore and experience this narrative bridge:
The plot of my fangame, &dquo;The end of the Millenium&dquo; , takes place in
the time between S3&K and SAl . The just of the plotline is , In one
quick boring summery, Mobius will expode at the end of the the
millenium due to a 2000 year old curse from the echidnas. Tails
finds out about this and they search for a planet that can sustain life,
they find earth, they go there, start SA1 storyline. There a lot more to
it then that but I’m not about to give away the whole plotline.

(Posted to ’Sonic the

Hedgehog Area 51’, 8 February 2002)
However, such theorising rarely goes unchallenged and posters to the
board rigorously interrogated the validity of the theory. In doing so, these
fans demonstrate a remarkably thorough knowledge of the minutiae of
the various Sonic titles.
Good, except there’s one problem: In the past scenes in SA you see
that Angle Island was once connected to the jungle area of Mystic
Ruins before it lifted into the air, so that kinda destroys the theory ....

(Posted to ’Sonic the Hedgehog Area 51’, 11 February 2002)

In response:
I considered that. After it rises from the Mystic Ruins it floats out of
Earth and to Mobius.
__________
It is possible - play Sonic3&Knuckles as Knuckles and beat it with all
 55

the emeralds. It you watch caretully in the ending the Island tloats up
quite high, almost (but notquite) into space. The island is likely to
have lots of energy surrounding it after it was created and that excess
energy could have propelled into space and beyond.
Anyway I have found some evidence that both supports and
discredits the interview.I will post it later today / tomorrow.
(Posted to ’Sonic the Hedgehog Area 51’, 12 February 2002)
Further postings highlight the possibility of the apparent inconsistency as
being a localisation issue where in-game and supporting text is
translate for different territories (in this case, from the original Japanese
to English). Here again the fans’ awareness of the processes of
production includes translation of in- and out-game materials such as
instruction manuals, backstories and even interviews:
MightI point out that Naka-san is Japanese, and Sega has a way of
translating things from Japanese to ENglish to suit their whims. (This
isn’t just Sega; any large corpration will change certain things like
that) Naka may have said something different in relation to a planet
name, and Sega may have simply used &dquo;Mobius&dquo; in its place.

(Posted to ’Sonic the Hedgehog Area ~1’, 12 February 2002)

Fan art, As Jenkins 19 among others has noted, fan art takes a variety of forms and
character often involves relocating characters in new locales and applying different
development aesthetic treatments. Frequently, this artistic endeavour involves weaving
and a tapestry of characters from a particular film, television
reappropriation programme/series or even genre, such as the various iterations of Star
Trek, for example. Furthermore, fan texts very often draw upon the
biography and career of the performers ’behind’ roles and characters.
So it is that we find Captain Pickard passed through the filter of actor
Patrick Stewart’s Shakespearean theatrical performances and
re-imagined as tragic Elizabethan hero. We might then be tempted to
think that virtuality of videogame characters and the absence of an
identifiable protagonist would curtail the potential for extratextual
readings among videogame fans. Yet this is far from the case. A number
of important parallels do exist in the videogame fan art displayed at
NitendoLand.com and that described by Jenkins. First, videogame fan art
appears to provide a space in which women players can redefine
characters. The re-presentation of the Super Mario series’ Princess Peach
as both musclebound or, most notably, as hybrid Peach-Xena Warrior
Princess illustrates that fan art is one further channel through which
resistance can flow. Second, like fanfic, fan art demonstrates
intertextuality in its creation and encourages intertextual readings.
Examples abound of assemblages of characters from various game
series, or even hybridised versions of characters, crossing elements of
Link with Pikachu, for example. Particularly notable is an untitled image
submitted to www.nintendoland.com by Topaz that shows both Link and
Mario in what is clearly Mario’s ’world’. Link’s caption ’Why doI have
this strange feeling that I’m going to save the wrong princess’ serves to
neatly and ironically highlight the similarity of underlying objectives
 56

present in these two experientially different series. It will be interesting to

see whether the increasing use of voice and acting talent in videogames
encourages fans to seek out the performer behind the pixels and
incorporate them into the milieu of game fan materials. There is certainly
evidence of a form of auteurism at work in discussions of Nintendo’s
Shigeru Miyamoto and Sonic Team’s Yuji Naka, as we have seen, that
illustrates an openness to consider the personnel involved in the creation
and realisation of videogames.
Fan production also encompasses music and sites host MIDI files of
painstakingly transcribed and re-performed videogame themes.
Moreover, fans often remix their favourite tunes, extending them,
modifying and repositioning their style and thereby melding their
authorship with the original. In doing so, the fan-musician like the fan
artist or writer of fan fiction, further invests themselves in the text. Perhaps
most unexpected, however, is the production of fangames. While the
user-creation of ’skins’ or even levels is well-known and built into the
off-the-shelf functionality of many First Person Shooters (FPS), the
creation of an entire game built around, and extending, an extant
franchise, has been reasonably uncommon even among game fans. Will
Wood’s (aka The Ancient Zodiak) PC game ’The Legend of Zelda: The
Grand Adventures’ picks up and develops the narrative from the SNES
title The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (1992).

Although not an official title of the Zelda series, this fan created RPG
has very much the spirit of a Zelda game. Created by The Ancient
Zodiak, this game is being made for all the fans of the series to
enjoy, and even take part in. A demo of this game was released in
March, and along with the demo came a contest. The winner of the
contest won both the admiration of having their design as the official
title screen, and they got to be a character in the game. The winner
of this contest was &dquo;Elvie&dquo;. Another contest will open soon allowing 8
more people a chance to be in the game. This game is still in

development and is estimated to release late 2002 - early 2003. 20

The demands for
coding skill are one obvious reason for the
comparative infrequency of fan-games, though fans have been keen to
explore the potential of hypertext, Flash, Java and other web-deliverable
formats to explore their creativity. While fan games remain rare even
given the potentially democratising nature of web development tools,
numbers continue to increase. The Super Mario Portal fansite plays host
to a wide variety of fan-produced titles inspired by various Nintendo
series, characters, and other IPs. It is perhaps unsurprising that these
games do not match the scope or aesthetic of commercially-praduced
titles given the enormous expense of contemporary development and the
highly specialist nature of the production of the assets that have become
staples of commercial videogame product such as full-motion video
(FMV) and real-time 3D characters and environments. Yet, the very
existence of these games indicates the way in which fans explore the
avenues of textual production open to them and the significance of
electronic media in the production and distribution of fan texts.
 57
Walkthroughs Commercially and fan-produced ’walkthroughs’ further aid the player in
their negotiations and dialogues with game spaces. Walkthroughs are
texts outlining, in often painstaking detail, the potentialities of the
gameworld. More than commentaries on the game, walkthroughs serve
at least three purposes. First, they frequently offer maps detailing the full
extent of the gameworld including ’secret areas’. Second, they offer
narrativised, egocentric accounts of the ways in which the player may
tackle the game that present a relational space much like the pirate’s
treasure map (take ten paces forward, you will come to a rock, take
three paces left ...) that indicate the ways in which, for example, secret
areas may be uncovered. Thirdly, the production of walkthroughs, as
well as FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) and Glitch Lists (see below),
represent a significant and visible mastery of the game and must be seen
as existing at least in part to signal the position of the author as expert
user. Walkthrough texts may then be seen as mechanisms by which

players attempt to present the identities within the gaming community.

Moreover, the discussion that they generate maintains the life and
visibility of games long after they have disappeared from publishers’
catalogues and retailers’ shelves. In this way, the culture of discursive
criticality and creative expansion and embellishment that surrounds,
supports and emerges from walkthrough and FAQ production and use
may be seen to counteract the tendency of the videogames industry to
position its products as ephemeral. Where the industry and its marketers
appear eager to point to the superiority of sequels and the ’next big
thing’ and the immediate obsolescence that new hardware and software
releases engender, fan activity does much to sustain games, imbuing
them with a greater degree of permanence and value. It is clear from the
often extensive revision lists that typically preface fan-produced
walkthrough texts that the production of such materials represents a
considerable effort in time, creative and investigative energy. Even the
briefest glance at the structure and layout of most walkthroughs speaks
of the dedication and seriousness with which the task is undertaken by
authors. The texts are usually split into a number of sections and
invariably include explications and discussions of the backstory of the
game at hand and/or its prequels (often reproduced from official
documentation though perhaps with additional commentary);
explanations of the available controls; reference lists of each enemy the
player might encounter with their stats (including strengths, weaknesses,
attack patterns, techniques for evasion or victory); reference lists of items,
weapons, capabilities with associated strategic commentary.

Given the extensive work required to produce guides and walkthroughs,

it will little surprise that the contents of the texts, and specifically
come as
their authorship and origination, are carefully and jealously guarded. It
follows that impassioned, often angered, diatribes and accusations
clearly born of personal experience and relating to plagiarism and the
illicit and unauthorised reproduction of elements of walkthroughs by third
parties in their own walkthroughs or fansites are a common sight. While
plagiarism is a concern, competition is clearly a motivating factor.
~ ~- ~ -
Hmmmm ... I feel like updating agian! I see CyricZ has a nice FAQ
 58

up now, more competition! I like that!Am determined to make this

complete now! I spotted on the message board we have two more
coming to, one from flammable and one from MC Grammar, as
well as Myst Erik Ery.I better get workin’ 121
Yet, for all this, walkthroughs are often collaborative exercises and in
themselves serve to consolidate and even form alliances between fans
and groups. Credits sections dutifully name check contributors and
meticulously note the exact nature of their input whether this be guidance
on a particular boss (the often complex end of level guardian that must
be defeated to allow progress), or details on an alternative ending or
conversation branch in a game. The collaborative nature is at the heart
of the walkthrough. While they clearly represent labours of love for their
principal authors or editors, they are usually replete with genuine
requests for contributions from readers. As such, the creation of
walkthroughs provides a vivid example of the productivity of
videogaming and the complex sociality of the discussion board and
webri ng .22
Using The implications of the use of walkthrough texts are considerable. Most
walkthroughs obviously the integrity of puzzles, whether they be conceptual or spatial,
must surely be undermined and the issue of cheating is clearly raised.
Regrettably, space here does not permit a lengthy discussion of cheating,
however, it is worth noting briefly that the application of the term is
hugely problematic. The use of walkthroughs, or indeed what are
frequently referred to within games themselves as ’cheat codes’ or ’cheat
modes’ is not uniformly considered cheating among players. For some,
the use of walkthroughs and their negation of puzzle-solving may defeat
the object of the game (thereby revealing the variegated pleasures to be
derived from a specific game). For others, the integrity of the game may
be retained where walkthroughs are utilised only when the efforts of the
player have been exhausted or thwarted. As such, it is important to note
that, like the games to which they refer, walkthroughs are deployed in
different ways by different players according to the game itself and player
preferences. Moreover, it is necessary to differentiate texts such as
walkthroughs or FAQs from ingame cheat modes (such as invincibility)
according to their integration within the game itself. Thus, while the
perhaps misnamed ’cheats’ offered within the menu options of games
such as Rare’s Conker’s Bad Fur Day (2001) for example, may directly
interfere with the fabric or funcfiionality of the game, after all, a
walkthrough may explain in vivid and lucid detail how a puzzle may be
completed or a space traversed, the player must still perform the solution
(see also the quote below), their use is often not considered to represent
cheating. Rather, infinite ammunition, health or the ability to walk though
previously impenetrable walls, may be considered as alternative modes
of play. As Newman and Simons have illustrated, walkthroughs, by virtue
of their position ’outside’ the game, are frequently considered as
material to facilitate cheating thereby undermining the integrity of the
game and the experience of play, though many players view
walkthroughs as indispensable tools to aid creative play calling into
question the very notion of cheating.23 However, walkthrough authors
 59

are sensitive to this and structure their textsso as to enable flexibility of

use. Sections containing &dquo;spoilers’ that may reveal, for example,
unexpected twists of the game’s narrative, are often separated or at least
marked out from the body of the text. Furthermore, some authors provide
instructions or user guides for their walkthroughs that demonstrate how
different players, operating in different contexts, with different objectives
and seeking to derive different pleasures from engagement with the
game might use their walkthrough. Moreover, the competitiveness of
walkthrough production and the desire to assemble the most complete
listing is ably demonstrated.
You still have to be aware of a few things though, so you don’t get
confused by the
layout of this immense file.
**
I think it is especially important if you have never beaten the game
to not read the spoiler section. If you’ve never completed it then it
would be in your best interest not to look at this section.
**
If you’re having trouble with anything, only look at the section that
refers to what you’re having trouble with. This isn’t meant to be read
through in one sitting (unless you’re analyzing this whole document
waiting for me to slip up somewhere along the line). 24
While the use of walkthroughs certainly demands further
variegated
study, initial research suggests that for many players, the walkthrough
our
allows them to engage with the game on terms that suit their
predilections and preferences. For many players, for example, the use of
walkthroughs appears to signal a privileging of performance over
puzzling. It must be remembered that, for many games, there is
considerable latitude for success or failure even once the objective or
puzzle solution is known. Even armed with the knowledge as to how to
tackle a given Super Mario Sunshine (2002) or Pikmin (2001) stage, it is
perfectly possible, indeed highly likely, that success will not be immediate.
However, an essential and
frequently overlooked aspect of walkthroughs
does not simple ’completion’ or the subsuming of puzzling.
concern

Walkthroughs, and here their name is somewhat misleading, usually

dedicate only part, and often a small part, of their pages to
’walkthroughs’ per se. That is, the walkthrough is but one of a number of
sub-sections in the typical walkthrough text. Walkthroughs are written by
and for players who not only wish to complete a game, but players who
want to know a game. More than this, players who wish to know every
conceivable aspect, feature, afft,rdance, and indeed, glitch and
inconsistency of a game. As such, walkthrough texts may be used by
players who have already played through the game to ’completion’ and
wish to revisit and explore every last pixel of the gameworld, gather every
last object, talk to every last non-playable character (NPC), experience
each branch of the game narrative. In this way, walkthroughs encourage
almost obsessive play and scrutiny of the game and outline the most
minute and, to the non-adept at least, apparently trivial details such as
variations in NPC responses. These
are documented with the same
fastidiousness even though they, in many cases, do not alter the course
of the game’s narrative per se. Even where options are presented to the
 60

player that elicit different conversations yet do

not alter the narrative
outcome which continues irrespective of one’s response to apparently
binary oppositions (i.e. the game may proceed in exactly the same way
whether we choose to help an NPC or not), the walkthrough seeks to
document and explain their operation.

Playing (with) In addition to descriptions, maps, tactics and strategies, walkthrough

the game texts are a valuable source of player-derived rules to be overlaid onto the
simulation. In this way, walkthroughs encourage the consideration of the
manipulability of videogames and the potential to explore games and
gameworlds as material for play rather than necessarily restrictive,
rule-bound structures that push gamers down prescribed paths. While we
might be used to thinking about games like The Sims (2000) in these
terms, we are perhaps less familiar with the open-endedness and
flexibility of racing game series like Gran Turismo (1 997-present) or
Ridge Racer (1994-present), for example. While the ostensible objective
may be to complete laps in as speedy a time as possible, players in fact
frequently challenge each other to execute the greatest number of
’doughnuts’ (full 360 degree spins) along the final straight, or to drive
for as far as possible the wrong way around the track avoiding oncoming
traffic. Similarly, fans of Halo (2002) will no doubt be familiar with the
dubious pleasures of triggering huge grenade-induced explosions in
order to jettison the Warthog transport craft as far into the air as possible
(see Juggertrout, ’Warthog Jumping FAQ’, 200325).
FAQs and walkthroughs for Nintendo’s GameCube Pikmin illustrate the
imposition of new game modes and the operation of the community of
players in defining challenges. Where the instructions encoded in the
new

game require the player to collect the various, scattered parts of their
spaceship so as to blast off home within the 30 days that the game lasts,
players have sought to heighten the challenge and increase the replay
value and longevity of their game by limiting the use of certain objects
and capabilities in the game (for example, tackling the game without one
of the three varieties of eponymous helpers); by focusing on attainment
of high scores (rendering completion of the game insignificant or merely
a given); or by restricting the time limit yet further as with the ’9-day

challenge’.
First off, this is not a normal Pikmin Walkthrough. If you’re looking
for a guide to beat the game normally, go somewhere else. This
walkthrough is to help you beat the Pikmin 9 Day Challenge, a task
originally devised by SnapDragon. The task is simple; collect all 30
of Captain Olimar’srocket ship parts in a mere 9 days. Sounds
impossible? Then read on... but remember, even with a strat, this is
quite a task, so don’t attempt it unless you’ve beaten the game at
least once.26
Nintendo’s Metroid series has provided similarly nch pickings for players
seeking and setting new challenges. Chief among these, and clearly
demonstrating the playfulness of engagements with the game, may be
found in the many ’low-percent’ walkthroughs that exist for titles in the
series. Where a game such as Metroid Prime (2002) may, like many
 61

others, encourage and even goad players by revealing the percentage of

the challenge and secrets remaining to be uncovered thereby drawing
attention to the expansiveness of the gameworld, the need to progress
and continue and perhaps, by implication, the value-for-mr~ney of the
game, low-percent walkthroughs demand an altogether different
approach. Here, mastery of the game comes from tackling the various
puzzles and challenges and completing the game with as few additional
’pick-ups’ as possible. For example, it is quite commonplace to acquire
upgraded firepower or entirely new attack and defence capabilities as a
game progresses and the foes increase in complexity and number. The
advocate of the low-percent game eschews such assistance and attempts
to tackle the game with as close to the initial set of capabilities and
capacities as possible.
Welcome. This is a guide for the 1 per cent challenge. What’s the 1
per cent challenge, you ask? Well, here goes ...

If you think that the game was not fulfilling enough for you, or it
wasn’t challenging enough for you, then this challenge is for you.
Basically, you play the game again, but there is a twist. You are not
allowed to collect any missile tanks, bomb tanks, and energy tanks
throughout the whole time you play the game. Every tank you pick
up will increase your ending percentage by 1 per cent.
The only exception is 1 missile tank that is unavoidable, and thus the
1 per cent. So, your mission is basically to beat the game with 15
missiles, 10 power bombs, and only 99 points of energy. Sounds
impossible, doesn’t it?
Not exactly, that’s what this guide is for. My advice is that, if you’re
going to try the challenge, don’t start reading the guide until your
are sure you are stuck beyond reasoning. It is a challenge, andI
don’t expect anybody to complete it, but if you do, you earned
bragging rights. 27
Metroid Prime, like Quake (1996) and a number of other titles before it,
has also provided opportunities for players to explore the practice of
’sequence breaking’. While much has been written on the non-linearity
of videogames and their hypertextuality or even ergodicity,28 sequence
breaking highlights and is based on the simple fact that many
videogames offer highly restrictive, linear progression paths, or at least
are structured in such a way that the completion of specific sequences in
a prescribed order is essential for progress to continue. indeed, this
model of progression has become a staple of game design and sees
players commencing the game with limited capacities and capabilities
that are expanded as the game develops and with which the player may
tackle an ever more complex set of tasks.
Sequence Breaking is the act of obtaining items in the game out of
order, or of skipping said items entirely.
Much like Sequence Breaking in Super Metroid, Sequence Breaking
in Metroid Prime has been refined into an art. The goal of the
_______
Sequence Breakers is to push the game as far as they can, either by
 62

getting the lowest percent ot item pickups, by beating the game as

quickly as possible, or by beating the game as quickly as possible

with all items (1 Oa per cent pickups).29
The motivations for engaging in sequence breaking are particularly
revealing and point to a knowledge of the mechanics and structure of
the game with specific regard to the linearity of the game design, and the
malleability of the material presented by the title that is open to different
ways of playing. Indeed, not only is the material of the game open to
these play modes, but exploratory activity such as sequence breaking is a
way of reaffirming the original objective and honing skills yet further. As
such, sequence breaking is conceived as a way of improving one’s
abilities, and also as an activity that confirms the players’ expertise and
mastery of the game even beyond the intentions of the designer.
What is Sequence Breaking?

Sequence Breaking means you do things in Metroid Prime the

developers probably didn’t intend, such as getting items out of order
or going places you’re not supposed to go yet.

Why Sequence Break?

Ifyou’ve played through Metroid Prime a couple times, and you think
you’ve seen all the game has to offer, think again. You can hone

your skills and do things you probably never thought possible (while
getting better and better completion times to boot). 30
Again, we see here evidence of a number of motivations. First, and
perhaps most obvious, is the desire to extract as much enjoyment and
challenge from a given title and it is certainly not beyond the bounds of
possibility to suggest that this is bound up in a desire to maximise the
’bang-per-buck’. However, there is more to this activity than mere
economics and it is possible to read the setting and accepting of such
challenges in the context of the arrival of the videogame as ’mass
market’ pastime. Even though the mass market may have access to these
games, the ’true’ player seeks different pleasures from them. If there is
what we might term a ’hardcore’ way to play the game, it is this that is
fed by the walkthrough and particularly by tests and trials such as the low
percent Mefiroid walkthrough or 9-Day Pikmin challenge. There are clear
parallels with the ways in which c~ft-called ’hardcore’ gamers take
advantage of the differential global release dates and strategies for
certain game titles to demonstrate their immersion in the culture of
videogaming by importing and playing titles before their ’official’ release
in their home territory, or even by importing titles that have no scheduled
release.

production and use of walkthroughs may be seen as a

In this way, the
means signalling and managing the identities of players. For
of
producers of walkthroughs, this occurs most obviously through the
ranking and reviewing of walkthroughs online by the community of peers
on the grounds of, for example, their completeness, elegance and
conciseness. Indeed, this process is formalised and institutionalised yet
 63

further through contests such as those organised by www.gamefaqs.com.

Contests vary in format and include the ’Best FAQ of the Month’ where:
FAQs are selected based on their content, comprehensiveness, and
quality. Emphasis will be placed on FAQs that fill requests, are the
first FAQ for a game, or are very unique in their content and
approach. 31
Additionally, and indicating the participative nature of the walkthrough
community, the ’FAQ Bounty Contest’ directly responds to requests from
players.
Certain games have been released for weeks, months, and in some
cases, years, without a full FAQ/Walkthrough for the game having
been ever released for it. As more people request guides for these
games, it shows that people are really clamoring for certain games
to be covered. Nows
While walkthrough production might seem the most tangible way in
which identities are formed and managed, making use of these
walkthroughs to suggest new directions for play may be just as significant
in signalling membership of the hardcore of otaku. By taking advantage
of walkthroughs and the specific challenges that are set within them,
players are able to communicate their membership of a larger
community of expert players. In the context of collaborative and shared
play, post-play discussions of games, the sharing of strategy and
technique, a player’s knowledge and awareness of the game are ably
communicated through their play modes and their ability and willingness
to move beyond stated rules and objectives.

Glitches and The search for glitches and bugs represents another attempt to seek
bugs alternative gaming pleasures and is further evidence of the way
videogames are played with. The term ’glitches’ is something of a
catch-all and is variously used in videogame culture to refer to
audio-visual imperfections (graphics drawing incorrectly or audio
breaking up), gameplay anomalies (the ability to get stuck in certain
looping sequences), narrative inconsistencies (continuity errors
or even
either within titles series). However the term is deployed within
or across
a specific group, it is common to distinguish further between

’game-threatening’ and ’harmless’ glitches. Where exploiting a harmless

glitch might allow you to disrupt the boat graphics in Pokemon
Ruby/Sappf~ire’s (2002) ’Slateport City’ location without affecting your
game, or access the so-called ’Minus World’ of Super Mario Bros , 33
more serious glitches may crash the game, overwrite your saved progress
or render your saved game state unusable. The recent release of
Madden NFL 2005 (2004) galvanised fans into action when it was found
that a feature of the game could be exploited to gain an unfair
advantage over another player without their knowledge. In addition to
being reported in the gaming and technology press, 34 an online petition
demanding the recall of the game was established. At the time of writing,
this has received 2149 signatures.
In early August, EA Sports released their newest version of their
___________
Madden Football game series, Madden NFL 2005, along with
 64

another version, Madden NFL 2005 Collector’s Edition. In less than

3 weeks after the game being released, a major flaw was found in
the game involving one of this year’s new features, the Formation
Audible. The problem occurs when the offensive team Formation
Shifts, it causes the defensive team to become fatigued. If this is used
several times before the ball is snapped, the entire defense will be
exhausted, therefore hindering their ability to compete. A person can
very easily do this to their opponent without their opponent even
realizing that they are being &dquo;glitched.&dquo; Also, the person on offense
may be doing this to their opponent, without the intent of cheating,
but simply using the feature in the game, and not even realize they
are getting an unfair advantage

While the Madden NFL 2005 episode illustrates the potential problems
that coding anomalies may cause and the strength of feeling among the
gaming community, the search for and exploitation of glitches,
imperfections in the code or its execution, is further evidence of the
willingness of some players to not only play games but also to play with
the very boundaries of their operation. It confirms also the desire to
explore games in immense, precise detail and to find explanations and
patterns in the behaviour exhibited by the game’s simulation model, even
when this behaviour is aberrant and unexpected. The continuing
discussion and speculation surrounding ’MissingNo.’ in Pokemon
Blue/Red (1997) is a case in point. In certain circumstances, when
attempting to retrieve data for a Pok6mon to battle against the player,
the Pok6mon Blue/Red game accesses an invalid data set and reports a
’MissingNo.’ accompanied by random graphics in place of the usual
Pok6mon name, all important number (from 1-151) and character
graphic. The appearance of this ’MissingNo.’ ’character’ has prompted
considerable speculation on Pok6mon discussion forums as to the
identity of this mysterious new creature. Theories range from it being a
secret, unlockable Pok6mon, another of the extremely rare ’Legendary
Bird’ Pok6mon that populate the game, or even that it may be a
GameBoy virus. 16 The ’Poke-Documentary’ posted by Pok6mon fan
’ACE91’ to the ’Nintendo NSider Forums’ illustrates not only the
engagement with the range of competing theories that circulate among
the Pok6mon fan community but also a high degree of technical
understanding and appreciation of the coding devices and procedures
that underpin ’the game’:
This chapter goes into great detail about the inner workings of the
game, but, bear with me, I will attempt to make it easy for those of
you who are not quite so computer-savvy. First, we all know that
there are 151 Pokemon in the Red and blue games, right? Well, the
game’s memory was designed to hold 255. This is because of the
binary numbering system used for computers, one byte of
information holds a number from 0 to 255. Only 151 of those slots
were filled, the rest were either left empty or filled with other

miscellaneous game information. Now, this normally wouldn’t

matter, as the game can only acces 151 of those slots as Pok6mon,
__________
right? Wrong. When a glitch causes the game to try to acces one of
 65

the slots over 151, the &dquo;Missing numbers&dquo;, you get MissingNo.
(Which stands for &dquo;Missing number
The search for and revelation of glitches illustrates that for the avid fan,
then, the videogame is not simply a static text to be read or decoded,
nor is it merely an experience to be had, a world to be and exist in, or a

journey to travel. Through conversation, analysis and discussion, the

game is refigured as a living, dynamic, malleable entity revealing new
secrets as it is continually probed, investigated and played, and it is
capable of being probed, investigated and played in new ways as it is
placed in new critical and ludic contexts. Moreover, fans interrogating
these glitches gain significant insights into the game development
process and knowledge of the technical principles that underpin the
game as they apprehend the game as a simulation and, in Ted
Friedman’s terms, ’think like the computer .3$

Conclusion The inherent sociability and productivity of videogame fan activity in

addition to the highly social nature of the practices of play they give rise
to and record, provides a significant challenge to the dominant discourse
that positions videogames and game play as anti-social, isolating and
creatively stifling. By scrutinising the practices and activities that support
and surround videogame play, we begin to glimpse the creativity that
emerges from play, and the new forms of playfulness that sustain
videogames and give them longevity beyond the ever-decreasing
shelf-lives that characterise the contemporary industry.

AcknowledgementI would like to express my sincerest thanks to Sophie Newman for her
invaluable assistance m the preparation of this article.

Notes 1. See J A Newman,Videogames (London and New York Routledge, 2004); and
also J A. Newman, ’The myth of the ergodic videogame: on player-character
relationships in videogames’, Game Studies, 2, no. 1 (2002), available at
http.//www gamestudies.org/0201/newman (accessed January 2004)
2 Year of publication is given for the first release of a given title irrespective of
platform or territory
3. E. Aarseth, Allegories of Space: the Question of Spatiality in Computer Games
(1998), available at http.//www.hf uib no/hi/espen/papers/space/ (accessed
July 2003).
4 J. Goody and I Watt, ’The Consequences of Literacy’ in Literacy in Traditional
Societies, ed. J. Goody (Cambridge. Cambridge University Press, 1968)
5. C Jessen, Children’s computer culture (1995), available at
http://www.hum sdu dk/center/kultur/buE/articles html (accessed February
2003)
6. S. Kline, Moral panics and video games, paper presented at the Research in
Childhood, Sociology, Culture and History conference (Child and Youth
Culture), University of Southern Denmark, Odense, 1999.
7 C. Jessen, Interpretive communities: the reception of computer games by
children and the young (1998), available at
http://www.hum.sdu.dk/center/kultur/buE/articles.html (accessed February
2003).
8 Senous Fun (Equinoxe series), Uden Associates for Channel 4 Television (UK).
First broadcast 7pm, 5 December 1993
66

9. See B. Sherman, B. and P. Judkins, Glimpses of Heaven, Visions of Hell: Virtual

Reality and its Implications (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1992) and S. Turkle,
The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit (New York: Simon &
Schuster, 1984).
10. J. Sherry, K. Lucas, S. Rechtsteiner, C. Brooks, and B Wilson, Video game uses
and gratifications as predictors of use and game preference, paper presented at
the ICA convention Video Game Research Agenda Theme Session Panel, 26
May 2001, available at
http://web.ics purdue.edu/~sherryj/videogames/papers.htm (accessed August
2003).
11. J.B. Funk, ’Video games: Benign or Malignant?’ Journal of Developmental
Behavioural Pediatrics, 13 (1992), pp. 53-54.
12. C E. Emes, ’Is Mr Pac Man Eating Our Children? A Review Of The Effect Of
Video Games On Children’, Canadian Journal Of Psychiatry, 42, no. 4 (1997),
pp. 409-414
13 G.I. Kestenbaum, L. Weinstein, ’Personality, Psychopathology, And
Developmental Issues In Male Adolescent Video Game Use’, American
Academy of Child Psychiatry, 24 (1985), pp 329-337.
14. The Graphics Processing Unit of the PlayStation 2 console has been dubbed
the ’Emotion Engine’ by its manufacturer Sony while much of the early publicity
surrounding launch titles such as Squaresoft’s The Bouncer (2000) proclaimed
the coming of a new generation of gaming experience to accompany this new
generation of hardware. However, ’emotional gaming’ has not featured heavily
in Sony’s more recent marketing strategies which have returned to the notion of

the equally nebulous notion of ’fun’ and, with camera-based Eyetoy peripheral
(2003) in particular, accessibility
15. H Jenkins, Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Cultures
(London, Routledge, 1992).
16. W. Brooker, Using the Force: Creativity, Community and Star Wars Fans (New
York and London: Continuum, 2002).
17. Postings to discussion boards and forums are reproduced with the original
formatting, colloquial conventions and (un)intentional spelling errors.
18. Extracted from ’Missing Sonic 2 Levels’. Available at
http://ssrg emulationzone.org/area51/sonic2.html (accessed November 2004)
19. H. Jenkins, Textual Poachers. Television Fans and Participatory Cultures
(London: Routledge, 1992).
20 W. Woods, The Legend of Zelda: The Grand Adventures, available at
www.nintendoland.com (accessed July 2003)
21. Tazar, Pikmin FAQ/Walkthrough v 1.8. (2002), available at www.gamefaqs.com
(accessed July 2003)
22. See also C-T. Sun, H. Lin and C-H. Ho, ’Game Tips as a Gift’, paper
presented at Level Up: The International Digital Games Research Conference,
4-6 November 2003, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands
23. J. Newman and I. Simons, Difficult Questions About Videogames (Nottingham:
Suppose Partners, 2004).
24. Snow Dragon, Secret of Mana FAQ/Walkthrough v1.6 (2002), available at
www gamefaqs.com (accessed July 2003)
25. Juggertrout, ’Warthog Jumping FAQ’ (Halo: Combat Evolved), v1.40 (2003),
available at http.//db.gamefaqs.com/console/xbox/file/halo_warthogy_jump txt
(accessed June 2004). See also Randall Glass’ (creator of the Warthog
 67
Jumping movie) FAQ available at
http://www.oz.net/~:rglass/warthog/wjhowto.htm)(accessed November 2004).
26. Dragorn, 9 Day Challenge Walkthrough. (2002), available at
www.gamefaqs.com (accessed July 2003).
27. R. Ke a.k.a ’Super Saiyan Zero’, Metroid Fusion 1% Challenge Guide v1.1
(2002), available at www.gamefaqs.com (accessed March 2004).
28. See J.H. Murray, Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in
Cyberspace (New York: The Free Press, 1997); E Aarseth, Cybertext:
Perspectives on Ergodic Literature (Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins
University Press, 1997); also see J.A. Newman, Videogames (London:
Routledge, 2004) for a review of videogames and/as narrative.
29. Metroid, ’Sequence Breaking’ (2002), available at
http.//www.metroid2002.com/sequence_breaking.html (accessed June 2004).
30. Metroid, ’An Introduction to Sequence Breaking’ (2002), available at
http://www.metroid2002.com/sequence_breaking_introduction.html (accessed
September 2004).
31. GameFAQs, ’FAQ of the Month’, available at
http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/contest/fotm2.html (accessed June 2004).
32. GameFAQs, ’FAQ Bounty Contest’, available at
http://www gamefaqs com/features/requests/bounty.php (accessed June 2004).
33 See ’Super Mario Bros Bugs and Glitches’, The Mushroom Kingdom, available
at http://www.classicgaming.com/tmk/smb_bugs.shtml (accessed November
2004).
34. D. Becker, "’Madden NFL" called for unnecessary roughness’, C|Net
News com (3 September 2004), available at
http://news.com.com/’Madden+NFL’+called+for+unnecessary+roughness/21
00-1043_3-5347305.html?part=rss&tag=5347305&subj=news.1043 20
(accessed December 2004)
35. Madden NFL 2005 Petition (Hosted at PetitionOnline.com), Available at
http://www PetitionOnline com/madden05/petition html (accessed December
2004)
36 See ’Pokémon Red/Blue Glitches and Easter
Eggs’ Epic Gaming’, available at
http://www epicgaming.uk.ro/secrets/gb_pokemonrb.php (accessed December
2004); see also ’Glitch City’ Team Rocket’s Rockin! available at
http://www.trsrockin com/glitchcity.html (accessed December 2004).
37 ACE91, ’The Story of MissingNo (A Poké-Documentary by ACE91)’ Nintendo
NSider Forums, available at
http://forums nintendo.com/nintendo/board/message?board.id=pokemon&m
essage id=281953 (accessed December 2004).
38. T. Friedman, ’Making sense of software: computer games and interactive
textuality’ Cybersociety: Computer-Mediated Communication and
in

Community, ed S G. Jones (Thousand Oaks, CA and London: Sage

Publications, 1995); T Friedman, ’Civilization and its Discontents: Simulation,
Subjectivity, and Space’, Game-research.com (2002), available at
http://www.game-research.com/art_civilization.asp (accessed December 2004).