Identity and Play in Interactive Digital Media

Ergodic Ontogeny

Sara M. Cole

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781315390765
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Informatique
• Subtopic: Aspects sociaux de l'informatique

Recent shifts in new literacy studies have expanded definitions of text, reading/viewing, and literacy itself. The inclusion of non-traditional media forms is essential, as texts beyond written words, images, or movement across a screen are becoming ever more prominent in media studies. Included in such non-print texts are interactive media forms like computer or video games that can be understood in similar, though distinct, terms as texts that are read by their users. This book examines how people are socially, culturally, and personally changing as a result of their reading of, or interaction with, these texts. This work explores the concept of ergodic ontogeny: the mental development resulting from interactive digital media play experiences causing change in personal identity.

1 Ergodics and Ludology

There is no limit to what you can do, where you can go…you can really escape into the game… You know, I am a Marine Corps veteran. Having been to Iraq and experienced real battle…when I was playing that video game, I mean, I actually dreamt about my service during that time, you know. And (laughs), I’ll tell you what, I haven’t had a vivid dream like that since right before, since right when I came home.

—Levi

What are the limits of virtual experience? Do they exist in the minds of players? Do they bleed into everyday life beyond the subconscious level, beyond our dreams? How do moments lived through game narratives or ludic elements of play physically enacted via a hand-held controller relate to identification and psychological development beyond the game world? The complex relationship between the virtual and the real is experienced through narrative, play, and interactivity by players who report contested expressions of self, cultural stereotypes, and reasons for and results of playing video games.

Video games and other forms of interactive entertainment change storytelling, which changes the influence of cultural narratives. Representations of video games and players run the gamut from the acne-ridden obesity of South Park characters locking themselves in basements playing World of Warcraft (2004) to cartoonish claims regarding game content on national news programs¹ and Pokemon Go (2016) players walking themselves off cliffs or into traffic. Few critics embrace a nuanced approach to understanding video game influence. The complexity of this still relatively new medium must not rely on ill-informed, opinion-based exaggerations. A deeper understanding of how people play video games and what these play experiences mean must be addressed through interdisciplinary lenses of analysis that value player reports, programming choices, and cultural narratives equally.

The current text provides background information for readers unfamiliar with the various subjects included. This level of detail is still relevant for advanced students as interactive media study is a relatively new field being pushed in many complex, interdisciplinary directions. This book explains past perspectives on interactive/digital literacy and suggests which concepts should be combined or rejected in order to reach a more comprehensive understanding of the individual developmental processes, and therefore sociocultural shifts, that are derived from the ways we experience interactive narratives. Reorienting the field of interactive media studies to be more subject-driven is crucial. Expanding and reworking definitions of literacy and text are also essential goals.

Players are often categorized as strictly interested in rapidly incentivized violent actions or quickly processing visual and aural cues to solve puzzles and navigate virtual environments. Players themselves report that, although interest in such elements is often present, they use games to keep in touch with friends, work through emotions that are difficult to express publicly, and enact varied social or psychological roles. Video games influence individuals through an internalization of game content that alters players’ perceptions of self and reality. The findings presented here do not support a connection between this internalization and social concerns such as increased violence or de-socialization. Players recognize the allure of supposedly negative elements of video game play² but ultimately express a decided disconnect between the real world and virtual experiences of play.

Video games, like other popular media in the past, come under regular criticism by news organizations, media critics, and politicians. Many analyses focus on the potential for game play to increase aggression, violence, and shortened attention spans³ and blame video games for negative outcomes in society.⁴ The following chapters present a theoretical approach that defines elements of what it means to play video games and evaluates current analytical tools for studying the qualitative influence of game-play on thought and behavior. This book synthesizes diverse conceptions⁵ of interactive digital media in pursuit of common themes reflective of video games’ influences on personal identity and ideology.

The content of this book catches the reader up on theories from previous decades, exploring video game influence through discussions of play theory, narratology, game programming, and interaction with video game hardware. The following chapters incorporate essential theoretical aspects of new media in cultural terms and draw on emergent themes based on sociolinguistic analyses of interview data. The term ergodic ontogeny is introduced, which incorporates disparate theories floating in various disciplines, and begins to concretize critical components that contribute to identification through video game play. Ergodic identification is the sense of self resulting from this developmental process.

Future academic endeavors must incorporate multiple analytic approaches into the study of interactive digital media.⁶ The present text identifies basic themes of interactive media influence based on interview data, locating the emergent themes from participants in past theories of interactivity and play. The construction of identity through ergodic ontogeny relies on players’ connections with in-game characters, levels of immersion in digital/virtual environments, feelings of player agency through actions and narrative, and the crucial differences between experiences of the virtual and of the real. Though some video games may look or feel very real,⁷ the ideological and identity construction that takes place is distinct from real-world experience in important ways that allow for the internalization of new personal and cultural knowledge as shared through the veil of virtual experience, as opposed to real, and an understanding of the differences between the two. This inherent and necessary complexity inspired the need for a new comprehensive term for the developmental process associated with interactive digital play—ergodic ontogeny.

1.1 Ergodics and Ludology

Cultural and personal identity formation and ideological construction are inherently tied to (new and old) media consumption. In the last 30 years, a new entertainment form excelled in terms of sales and scope—video games.⁸ Forms of interactive entertainment media are available for free on smart phones, are playable online in public spaces,⁹ and make up a dominating industry with billions of dollars in profit each year in the United States alone.¹⁰ If entertainment media silently, or at least covertly through the guise of simple pleasure if not outright propaganda,¹¹ influence the ways in which we understand who we are and how we relate to the world around us, it is of utmost importance to find clear and detailed ways of analyzing this new interactive medium as player agency (the feeling of control over a character or other elements of the play environment) leads to increased internalization of cultural data.

Aside from individuals¹² who attack video game play for personal or political gain, interactive entertainment media products are often relegated to the realm of being just games. This oversimplification results in overreactions by uninformed consumers when the effects of the medium are called into question. Despite efforts by the Entertainment Software Review Board¹³ (ESRB) to implement a self-scaled ratings system, similar to the ratings for films, many parents ignore warnings and purchase video games for children regardless of adult content, likely because the word game is in the product description.

The multiple uses of words like game and play are detailed in the discussion of play in the next chapter. Ignorance of these terms leads to a demeaning of the medium, primarily due to its association with and widespread adoption by youth in modern society. Like print, film, comic books, and television before them, video games are often overlooked until there is a problem that might be linked to their consumption.¹⁴ Instances of violence in children, for example, may seem high, but causes are certainly multi-determinable.¹⁵ With adoption by the United States military¹⁶ and other institutions, it is increasingly indisputable that the interactive element of video game play leads to a form of training of the player. Training has long been associated with simulations, but as computer graphics improved and merged with entertainment, the line between playing and learning blurred.

As a game is played, the level of difficulty increases to accommodate increased skill by repeat players. This trend emerged during the arcade years of video game play but is a common element to any competitive activity. Could this train the player to need ever-increasing stimuli? Interactive entertainment media are repeatedly singled-out as possible causes for increased aggression or violent tendencies, and sources like newspapers and websites often flood the market with sound bites from academics condemning them. The critics who are most video game friendly admit the limitations in methodology and data, which often reflect the goals of the researcher rather than the realities of the player or of video game studies.

Is content alone to blame for players who take violent behavior in a game-world into a real-world setting? Does the playing of a game matter or will watching someone play that same game content have a similar effect? How do variables like age, culture, and gender¹⁷ influence the results? These questions cannot be answered quickly or easily and are difficult to squeeze into a succinct sound bite in response to a tragic event for which video games might be blamed.

Another side of interactive media research involves pedagogical applications of new media technology and our ability to exploit the shift to computer-mediated learning. The difference between traditional teaching methods (lecture/note-taking) and interactive experiences (either with digital components or without, such as playing with other children) is a rapidly growing field of research. Informed by theories of critical pedagogy, educational approaches that position students as active participants in the learning process are often effective.¹⁸ Digital technology provides a variety of learning methods that involve the transfer of information as a means of sharing “knowledge as a process of inquiry” (Freire, 1970, p. 58). Creative digital processes allow students and teachers to learn about a subject together, forming a learning environment in which they communicate more effectively and co-construct knowledge to create change. Education that allows for sharing of personal experience, expression of the individual, and the ways in which students relate to, are influenced by, and create society as they see it in their daily lives, facilitates an approach to learning that values the voice of teachers and learners equally (Gee, 2007; Giroux, 2003). In a virtual learning environment, students may even take the lead and surpass traditional authority figures while taking ownership of their own academic curiosity.

Most people in the United States interact with digital technology numerous times each day, the necessity of which is becoming more and more prevalent. Educators want to foster the use of technology for critical thinking and collaboration as well as for creativity and play (Czarnecki, 2009). Students with exposure to digital technology¹⁹ at an early age, especially those who have the opportunity to continually engage in digital learning processes, will be more prepared to negotiate a highly digitized environment. Drotner (2008) argued that the social divides of digital competency at a young age strongly influence future social stratification; technical knowledge may well be the key to future competence in a “globally digitized society” (p. 68).

The educational aspect of interactive entertainment media is often categorized as something other than a video game. The term video game most commonly implies an interactive form of digital entertainment, either downloaded or available on a disc, played with a joystick or controller on a computer or television screen with little or no redeeming educational value, a stigma that still plagues research in this field as assumptions are quickly made regarding studies about a topic as trivialized and divisive as video games.²⁰ There is a clear contradiction in the popular use of the term video game. It seems relevant to ask how the same artifact/text that is blamed for teaching aggression or training killers has limited educational value. Is it simply the plot of a game that determines whether it is detrimental to its player or a welcome asset? Are educational games necessarily void of competition or increased stimulation of their players’ senses? Why do people in the United States and other countries around the world continue to consider games with violent content most enjoyable, based on sales and ratings? How do we value research on these subjects? How might all of these factors be understood in conjunction? These questions are beyond the scope of any individual project, and my interest is not to prove or deny links between video games, learning, and conceptions of violence, but to expand our means of discussing such topics through qualitative research and theoretical exploration. By clarifying certain elements of the process of interactive media influence, members of all disciplines will be better able to work together to fully analyze these complexities.

The texts analyzed in this book are video games. They are also described as interactive digital media products or interactive media, a term that sets them apart from other new and traditional media forms without including the words video, which is inaccurate, or game, which is often misunderstood and devalued. Interactive entertainment media is not limited to computer or console games, especially considering the widespread use of hand-held gaming apparatuses and cell phone games....