Games as Literature


How Ludology Affects Tone: An analysis of how gameplay can be used to interpret author’s tone in SMT IV

In literary studies, tone is described as the author’s feelings towards their own material. Often, we can’t ask them their opinions (cause death is a cruel, cruel woman we all must chase after at some point) or the author straight up lies. Therefore, people study the tone of a passage to discover the writer’s thoughts. This idea works fine and dandy with books, but not so well with video games. There are two main reasons for that:

So now the problem becomes how do you think about video games, an art form of little text compared to player input. How do you analyze tone in something the player affects and the writer has no control over? The answer is simple: make the player play the game the way you want.

Authors do not always actively place tone in their works; it can be subconscious. Video games are likely more on the subconscious side of the fence. This is because of how many people actively place content into a game as well as how that content must be absorbed by the player. The player is given information that can best be used in a specific way, and it is up to the player to figure it out. However, since the game is often best enjoyed if the info is used the “correct” way, players will most likely seek out the correct way. This method of interpreting the info is the tone of a video game.

Let’s use Shin Megami Tensei IV as an example. The ludology of this game is as follows: collect some demons, use their magical power, become an undefeatable badass in this arcane style of turn-based hell. The tone is in the second step, using the demon’s powers. The creators gave each demon specific powers. This is the info the player must use correctly to complete the game. Here is how this plays out: The player is running through post-apocalyptic Tokyo. The player gets a random encounter. *Pokémon battle music begins* Ta-da, a new demon. Ooooooooo!!! Gotta get this one. This one is Loki. Alright, here we go. Successfully tricked Loki into being my friend and serving me as one of my demons. Now time to use him in battle and see how his powers work. There is the kicker. The player uses Loki and see his powers, powers chosen for him by developers. Loki has specific moves, elemental strengths, and weaknesses. Loki learns ice magic, support skills, and one status affecting move. He resists ice, force, and dark magic while completely nullifying gun attacks. Apart from making him O.P. as hell, the developers, whether knowingly or unknowingly, placed their tone in these decisions. Loki resists dark magic. You as the player learn this and then chose to use him against demons who favor dark magic. You are successful and then continue to use him against foes specializing in dark magic. The same process occurs with enemies who use guns. You start to associate Loki with strengths to guns and dark magic. What kind of creatures use these weapons? Guns are used mostly by humans gone mad or humans who attack the player. Dark magic is used by demons traditionally associated with “negative” forces in life, such as death or torture. So when do you, as the player, see Loki on your screen? … Only when there are negatively perceived humans or negatively perceived demons on the field. You start to associate Loki as a ruler over these types. He is unaffected by their powers.

This is the tone. The creators have a feeling towards Loki. He is strong, unaffected by things that live in the dark, unaffected by the desires of deranged humans. Loki is best used against these demons. Loki is what the dark fears because it knows it cannot conquer him, for Loki will always overcome it. These words, these would be the ones we would read in a direct text. This is the paragraph of character description. It was obtained by an analysis of ludology and translated into physical words on a computer screen. Tone is not impossible to analyze in a video game; it just must be obtained through different methods. Video games have their place alongside literature, and the same understanding can be applied to them both, you just have to use different techniques to obtain that information.

April 21st, 2018

The Issue of Author’s Purpose in Video Games

Author’s purpose is a concept in literary studies that outlines why the writer chose to write something the way they did. It is a common enough concept that every teenager in the American education system is forced to learn it. The basics of it revolves around asking why the writer wrote the piece, with there being three answers. The piece could be written to: inform the reader of facts and events, persuade the reader into believing something, or entertain the reader with fun and party favors.

In high school, these concepts are often studied in black and white examples. The teacher will hold up an encyclopedia (remember those awful things?) and ask what the purpose of it was. All the students reply simultaneously in a monotone voice, “inform.” And everyone gets and A and we go home. Except things are rarely that black and white in society. An author may write a poem to entertain their readers as well as persuade their readers of the pain felt by lower class members of society when they are unable to buy food. This same poem can also act to inform, as the writer may desire readers with little knowledge regarding the struggles of poverty to read it and learn from it.

How does this affect video games? Because video games have all of these problems with a few extra ones tacked on. On the surface, video games fall into the entertain category. That’s why people play them, they are sold in the “Entertainment” section of Best Buy, therefore they must exist to entertain. The problem with this way of thinking is that society perceives books as chores (thank you high school English classes). No one wants to read Moby-Dick for entertainment. Except this idea of author’s purpose isn’t about you; it’s about the author. And let me tell you, Herman Melville definitely believed his books would entertain the masses. He thought his 300-page adventure in whaling would be the new sliced bread. His author’s purpose is to entertain, even if no one is entertained.

Video games are meant to sell and make a profit, so they must be entertaining. Boring games with just lists of facts would never sell. But if the developers want to make a game of a list of facts, you gotta mix in some fun. You want to teach theoretical physics? Make a puzzle, visual novel where the player is forced to play the mouse in an experiment of theoretical physics to escape. You want to persuade people to understand racial inequality? Make an MMO where everyone’s race is predetermined by the computer. Both of the games described here are entertaining and were developed to be so from the moment of their creation. It does not mean they cannot be both entertaining and something else.

The other issue of author’s purpose is that so many people “write” a game. There’s the team of developers, the team of writers across the hall, the translators across the ocean, and the exhausted group of interns in the corner who have to pour coffee as well as work on the game. And even worse is that these groups may never communicate with each other. If intern #3 works in coding and is fed-up with being treated like a servant and hides a phallic painting in the game’s coding, the game could very well be released without anyone discovering it. There is no one author, and therefore there is no one purpose. Some people “write” the game for entertaining the players. Some “write” the game to persuade the player through well-written allegories. Some “write” so they can laugh at the knowledge that the game launched with their hidden, definitely not E for everyone, painting in the coding. There is no one purpose in a game.

These two issues of author’s purpose are unique to video games, and them combined with the issues that also plague literature make pinpointing author’s purpose difficult. When treating video games as art (because they definitely are) it is important to remember that the problems faced by literature are not only present in video games, but more buffed as well. They get way too O.P. for life. But then again, who doesn’t love a good boss fight?

April 21st, 2018