Postmodernism

Postmodernism began as a philosophical movement amid the aftermath of World War 2 in Europe and stems from a general cynicism with thirties-era modernism. In short, postmodernism is largely about questioning modernist notions of narrative, plot and characterization. Many postmodern authors wanted their readers to be more aware of how storytelling works and interact and question it so that they become active rather than passive audiences.

Examples of Postmodernism in Video Games

The world we live in today can be considered postmodern; we can see this reflected in the works that exhibit aspects of postmodernism. Video games, unlike other forms of Media, are still young and only started around the 60’s - 70’s. In a way, video games developed alongside the postmodernist movement.

Examples of postmodernist elements in video games include:

Subjectivity

Subjectivity is about how each person sees something and thus decides how to act towards it. Whenever someone reads a book or watches a film, that person will have a subjective view about the work and the themes within it. In the media of video games, especially Role-Playing Games (RPGs), people (the player) can express their views in-game. These moments offer take the form of scripted choices, though these types of choices can vary depending on what type of “mortality system” a game has.

One type of mortality system is the “karma meter”, such as the one featured in the Infamous series, where it is the game’s developer who decides what choices are “good”, “evil” or “neutral”. However, this can lead to player feeling restricted, since whether a choice is good, evil or neutral is entirely up to personal interpretation. An example of a scenario when a karma system falls apart; the player confronts a corrupt King who is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of people, the player is given the option of either killing or sparing the King, who is unarmed and unable to defend himself. If the person playing the game believes that killing the King is what he deserves but is given evil points added to their karma meter, then the player can feel better annoyed.

A different and more fluid type of mortality system is “companion approval”, mostly prominently featured in the Dragon Age series. Instead of a system when there is a universally “good” choice, each action is received differently by different characters in the game. In the case of applying this system “The Corrupt King” scenario: if player, who is joined by three non-player characters called Arthur, Emily and Drake, decides to kill the corrupt King, Arthur will disapprove the choice, Emily will approve while Drake will be indifferent. The results come off as more nature than the karma meter method.

Shallowness

In postmodern philosophy, there is only ever a single authentic moment which is when that moment happened, any recounts of that moment would merely be representations of that moment except the original moment itself. For example, René Magritte’s The Treachery of Images is a painting of a pipe with the words "Ceci n'est pas une pipe." (which is French for "This is not a pipe.") underneath it.

“This is not a pipe”, it’s a photonic projection of a digital recording of a scan of a photograph of a painted representation of Magritte's perception of a pipe.

When broken down, video games are complex illusions made from coding which acts as a foundation to add assets like models, textures, audio and many more elements that are needed to create a game.

            However, just because video games and all other works, be they fictional or factual, aren't truly “authentic” and are merely representations of moments, for example; halfway through a game, a character called Bart dies in scripted cutscene but Bart doesn't really die, it was just a virtual character model that was animated in such a way as to mimic dying. Even so the person playing the game can have an emotional reaction to the death scene, this applies to all forms of representations, what we see may not be real but our feelings towards it are real.

Intertextuality

Intertextuality is about mixing different texts and genres together, this can result in “a story within a story” an example of this kind of work would be Cloud Atlas. In this case, all the stories are connected through themes, with each story exploring those themes in different ways.

When genres are mixed together, it often results in a work that does not fit into any established genre. The work can have aspects from defined genres like horror and still not be a work of horror. An example of a video game that defies genre would be Katamari Damacy, which involves rolling a large, sticky ball over the environment and growing in size as larger and larger objects attach themselves to the ball.

Non-linear Narrative

The way in which experience narrative in video games not only depends on how the developer structures the narrative in the way they want to present it to the player, but what kind of gameplay the game has, for example; open-world games, such as Fallout 3, allow the player to abandon the main story in favour of exploring the world. Other games let the player decide what order to do certain story missions; this is what is known as non-linear gameplay.

An interesting example of a game that has a non-linear narrative but linear gameplay, is Beyond: Two Souls. The game narrative jumps to different points in the protagonist’s life, however the gameplay is quite linear, players are often restricted to limited area when give control of the character and almost impossible to die or fail to progress. The game offer the player the ability to make choices, however, due the game’s non-linear narrative player will already know when the protagonist will inevitable end up regardless of their choices.

Knowingness

Knowingness is when a creator purposefully draws attention aspects of the work. Knowingness can take many different forms; two examples of these would be Parody and Deconstruction.

A parody is a work created to imitate and usually make fun of an original work, its subject or even author by means of satiric or ironic imitation. An example of a parody game would be Duty Calls which mocks elements in First-Person Shooter games primarily the Call of Duty series:

A deconstruction takes apart a work so as to better understand its meaning and relevance to us in Real Life. This often means pursuing aspects of work’s inherent contradictions and the difference between how they appears in this one work and how they compare to other relevant works or ideas both in fiction and Real Life. An example of deconstructive game would be Undertale, the game is a Deconstruction of RPGs, both on a superficial level from satirical flavour text to the in-depth plot.

Minimalism

Minimalism is having things as bare-bones as possible, applying this to a game would having few control options and a simplistic art style. An example of a minimalist game would Journey which only has four controls (move character, move camera, interact and pause), there is almost no spoken (the only spoken works are said in a song during the credits but none of it is in English) or written dialogue (the only words that appear are at the title screen, the start and the end of the game). The game’s story is expressed through imagery and music.

Copyright in a Postmodern World

NOTE: Copyright laws vary from country to country.

Copyright is a legal right that grants the creator of an original work the exclusive rights for its use and distribution. The purpose of copyright is to protect creators who use their works to make a living selling their work, especially if they’re an independent artist.

            Even if a work is copyrighted, elements from that work can still used by other people if they are given permission from the original creator or if their being used under fair use i.e. educational research, criticism or parody. An example of a fair use parody would be Weird AI Yankovic’s song The Saga Begins which is a parody song based on Star Wars.

Another form of copyright is the Creative Common License which person copy and alter a work as long as the original creator is credited. A video explaining how Creative Commons works can be found here.

Problems with Copyright

However copyright is not without problems, when someone asked for permission regarding copyrighted material, creators (often big companies) will ask for payment before giving permission. Some creators may withhold their permission as they may not want their work featured in someone else’s, this can sometimes become a form of censorship in certain cases.

            An important example of the flaws with copyright, in 2013 YouTube launched an automatic content IP system that resulted in thousands, mainly video game related, being flag for copyright infringement ever though there where video that abided by fair use:

False Copyright Claims

As mentioned above, copyright can be used as a form of censorship; for example, creators can make copyright claims on YouTube videos that they believe violates fair use of their work, sometimes these claims are justified but on other occasions they are often used to hide criticism of their work:

However, in 2015, YouTube started its “Fair Use Protection” program to helped users who have received undeserved copyright claims:

Post-9/11 Culture

After the 9/11 attacks in 2001, which lead to the “War on Terror” and increased instability in the Middle East, western society became more paranoid about terrorism and, in some cases, more xenophobic of Muslins. This attitude worsened after the 7/7 in 2005.

The fear of terrorism can be in Post-9/11 media, especially in mainstream American news channel who appeal to people’s fear to garner support. This is more noticeable when compared to British news programmes:

However, most western news outlets often overexpose certain shocking events such as mass shootings or a manhunt to the point of making it seem like a movie:

On non-news platforms, terrorism is a major theme for many modern works ranging from TV shows like Homeland to video games like Call of Duty. The plot of Homeland is a CIA officer investigating a US soldier who may have deflective to al-Qaeda, the touches on the topic of terrorists hiding among the populist.

In Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, which is the first in the series to be set in a “modern conflict” though specific details are left purposefully vague. Halfway through the game, the player, in the role of an America Soldier, witnesses a nuclear detonation and is caught in the blast radius. The player doesn't immediately die but is instead give time to see the destruction caused by the blast before dying.

Destruction Obsession

There is a current trend among big budget movies that there has to be scenes of destruction. Much of these destruction scenes often take place in cities or other urban environments, the reasons for the destruction depend on the genre of movie; in a disaster movie, it’s caused by an act of nature such as earthquake or tornado. In a superhero, it’s usually the result of a fight between the hero and the villain. For whatever reason, the results are similar: destruction that frequently includes explosions, property damage, wrecked cars and in some cases civilian casualties. All of which would add up to a high financial cost and an immeasurable human cost.

Why is it then that these destruction scenes are used as a form entertainment? Most people are aware of how bad this kind of destruction would be in real life. The main reason may be whenever we witness such destruction, or any sort of danger, our body’s natural instinct is to release adrenaline into our system as part of an evolutionally survival tactic. Perhaps it’s this rush that makes scenes of destruction and danger entertaining for people.

However, scenes of destruction, especially in cities, can often invoke 9/11 imagery which can create cognitive dissonance (having thoughts or beliefs that oppose each other) in the audience who would adrenaline rush from the destruction but are also reminded of the horrors of 9/11. An example of this would be in Man of Steel when the city of Metropolis is being destructed, we see buildings collapsing and creating dust clouds and we see panicked people running with the camera shaking:

This creates further cognitive dissonance when the film is about Superman is supposed to be an idealise symbol of hope but in the film, he gets into fights that cause even more destruction and possible deaths:

Exhibitions and Engagement

An exhibition, in the broad sense, is an arranged presentation and display of a selection of items, examples of exhibitions would be galleries and museums. However, with the spread of smartphones which can often distract some people when they’re not engaged with their surroundings, weather it is because nothing grabs their attention or mere personal disinterest.

There are several factors that can get interested people into going to exhibitions:

Interactivity

When someone obverses a work passively, their brain is generally less active and doesn’t take in much information but when they are interacting with a work, their brain is more active and takes in much more information.

            Interactivity varies between different forms of media; music has you listen to a song (which can be done actively or passively by whether you decide to pay attention to the aspects of like lyrics or the rhythm). Books require you to make an effort to read it so that your brain is at least moderately active. Films, depending on the genre, require varying degrees of passive and active viewing; for example, a superhero movie requires you to be passive in regards to suspending their disbelief in order to enjoy the film, but a documentary would need you to watch the film actively to absorb the information presented in it.

            Video games have the highest level of interactivity among all forms of media as you interact directly with the world and characters within the game. As with films, the level of interaction differs depending the genre, in Roleplaying Games (such as The Elder Scrolls series) it can as deep as creating your character’s physical appearance and choosing what they say to other characters, or in a game like The Stanley Parable it can be as simple as walking and occasionally pressing a button.

Accessibility

There are two types of accessibility; physical accessibility and knowledge accessibility. Physical accessibility means people are more likely to attend an event, such as exhibitions, if it is at a convenient location and they have practical means to get there. However this can be bypassed if the event organisers provide other methods for people to experience it, for example, livestreaming the event online.

            Knowledge accessibility is based around a person’s existing knowledge of a work and whether they need to know a bit of information about work or the creator, for example, a gallery advertises a special exhibit about Van Gogh, someone who knows about Van Gogh and his work might be interested in going to the event, where as someone who doesn’t know about Van Gogh may be less interested in going. A way to negate this is by providing information about works, their creators and, in some cases, their historic context not just in the exhibits themselves but also on any advertising for said exhibits.

Relevance

Relevance can affect a work’s appeal to the public or to specific people. A work’s importance can vary depending on the state of the our world, for example, Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech still has relevant today as there is still a serious racism in the modern world.

More recent examples would be the many works based on the Troubles in Northern Ireland, ranging from books, films and TV series as the Troubles had an extremely large on people’s lives and its legacy is still felt today.

Video Games – A New Form of Exhibitions

Video games can be used a new platform of exhibitions, as mentioned above, they have a high interactivity which means the person playing them will take in more of the information presented to them. Exhibits can be converted into video game forms in interesting ways. A museum is a collection of items of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific significance; the intention of exhibiting these items is to educate the viewer about them. In the media of video games, the viewers can be taught in a more creative way by recreating the environments related to certain items, for example, instead of someone looking at Stone Age tools in a display case, a person can explore a virtually recreated Stone Age village in a game, seeing how historians believe people lived back then, the person playing would be able to would be watch villagers use tools and interact with them on some level. This can applied to different time periods and at different parts of the world.

            Examples of these types of games already exist, mostly in the form of educational games such as The Oregon Trail which is based the historical event of the same name.

However, games that don’t come under the category of being educational can still encourage people to learn about historical, cultural, political and other subjects through tangential learning:

Big Data - The New Age

Data can take many forms from basic personal information to what websites you visit and how often you visit them. In today’s world where practically all technology is connected to vast networks of information, we are contributing data about ourselves to these networks without even knowing it. However, whether that data accurately reflects who we are and how we behave varies for everyone, some of us may act more conservatively online but others may go online and look at random sites that don’t really reflect who they are.

New Oil

With the internet now widespread, companies have taken to advertise their products online and to this the companies will websites show they adverts. Many websites’ main source of revenue comes from advertisers; Facebook would an example of this kind of website. Facebook is free to join and use, so it has to get its money from advertisers, not only by merely allowing ads on the website but also selling users’ personal data which lets advertisers target their ads at people who are more likely to buy their products, based on personal information.

Facebook has also been known to manipulate its own data make itself more appealing to advertisers:

Dangers of Data

While data may not fully represent a person, there is a way information about people can be weaponised. An example would be China’s planned "social credit" system which measures a citizen's compliance with the state. The system involves compiling data about a citizen such as what they buy or what they post on social media and then uses that information to calculate a “ranking” for that citizen:

Data and Humanity

We are in a new age, the Data Age, where wearable technologies like Fitbit keep a log of how many steps a wearer takes. More and more people are having most of their lives catalogued, stored and shared. In the Data Age, humanity has become more connected than ever, both to each other and to technology itself. This connectivity is enabling better exchange of knowledge which results in ever increasing progress. Society can even be compared to that of a hive mind:

The Power of Sound

When many people think of art, they usually think of visual works such as paintings but visuals aren't the only way to create and express art as there is also sound. When people associate sound and with art, it’s often when they're talking about music though one can debate what qualify as music. Would the sound of nocturnal animals in a natural environment could as music? Some people may say it does while others may say it doesn't; it entirely is subjective like any form of art.

Conveying Emotion

Sound can convey emotion to an audience through its tone, rhythm and vocals; though having vocals doesn't mean there will have coherent lyrics. Examples of emotions that can be expressed through music include:

Upbeat Goofiness

Adventure

Conflict

Impending Dread

Terror

Sound Complimenting Imagery

Sound plays an important role even when coupled with imagery. While an image can express emotion on its own, sound can be used to help convey the emotion of the image. Or in some cases, sound can be used to create a juxtaposition (when two or more things contract each other) between it and the image:

Understanding the Virtual Space

Our Many Identities

In today’s society we live in two worlds: the physical world and the virtual world. The physical world is where we live our primary life; the virtual world is where we live our secondary lives. In both worlds we often filter ourselves for fear of ridicule from our peers and/or society, for example, when someone posts a statement on a social media site like Facebook, that person edits and rewrites the statement before posting it so that anyone who reads it will react to it in a way that the poster intended.

Unlike in the real world, it is easier for people to create a more idolized of themselves in the virtual space, the reasons some people do this can vary from peer pressure to simple narcissism. People can create profiles that they can use to express a side of themselves that their publicly afraid to show.

Escapism

In our modern world where every day seems to bring bad news, some people may even have their own personal problems to deal with which leads to stress that take a heavy toll on a person’s mental, emotional and even physical state, thus some person look for means of “escape” through mediums such as the internet. As mentioned above, the virtual space is essentially a place for people to go to when they need to get away from the real world. Escape can also be done through other mediums such as books, films and video games.

Criticism in the Virtual Space

While in the virtual space, some people may come under criticism especially if they’re a content creator. Types of criticism can range from helpful constructive criticism to simple expression of dislike because of personal preference to ill-willed insults. That last form of criticism is often known as “trolling”; when somebody causes discord for their own amusement. Insults can sometimes turn into genuine harassment, which is why some people try to shield themselves from criticism altogether. An example of this would be a YouTube content creator disabling the ability to rate and comment on their videos. This can lead to people developing a superiority complex and perceiving any criticism as an attack.

Ways to Read a Work

There are three ways to examine a work:

·         Narrative Interpretation

·         Technical Analysis

·         Context of Creation

Narrative Interpretation

Narrative interpretation is studying the narrative elements within a work such as themes, metaphors or ideas the author wanted to express through their work. Every person can interpret a work differently, for example, someone can say that the play Romeo and Juliet is about the foolishness of young lovers but another person can say it’s is actually about the thoughtlessness of the old generation, technically neither is wrong, it’s up to personal interpretation.

Interpretation can lead to the discovery of things like hidden symbolism. For example, some people believe that the film Inception is actually metaphor for filmmaking; each character in the main cast represents different members of a film crew:

However, narrative interpretation can sometimes lead people to find meaning in things the author did not intend to have; an example would when some people interpreted that the ring from The Lord of the Rings series was an allegory for the nuclear bomb during World War 2, J.R.R. Tolkien however denied this:

Technical Analysis

Technical analysis is about observing the technics used to create a work, this can range from practical effects used in films to the craftsmanship of a pot.

These techniques aren't limited to visual imagery; they can also be seen in written works. For example, an author can express a character’s personality through their dialogue such as having a character talking for a whole paragraph about various trivia topics to show that the character is chatty and absent-minded without directly stated it to the audience.

Certain technics can be seen as the creator’s signature, for example, Stanley Kubrick’s films feature one-point perspective shots. Kubrick would use this technique to draw attention a subject positioned at the vanishing point.

Context of Creation

Context of creation revolves around looking into a work’s origin: who made it, why was it made, when and where it was make, etc. Understanding these area would shed new light on certain aspects of a work, for example in India there is a taboo against public kissing hence why there are lots of “kissing discretion shot” in Bollywood movies.

A more detailed example would be Derek Jarman’s 1993 film Blue which is made up of a single shot of the colour blue filling the screen with narration. The film was released four months before his AIDS-related death; complications from the disease had already rendered him partially blind at the time of the film's release. Before making the film, Jarman wrote a book called Chroma which was about what different colours meant to him, this in turn severed as the bases for the film.