In spite of the fact that we tried to cover the evolution of the gamer hero over the last 2.5-3 decades in such a short time, I think we actually covered a lot of ground and touched on a lot of key points. During our discussion of two of the first mainstream movies that featured gamer heroes it had already become apparent that there were always going to be two types of gamer hero:
The Standard Gamer Hero
The Hacker Gamer Hero
The standard gamer hero is fairly self explanatory, covering all gamer heroes that rose to meet a challenge and win through their interaction with actual video games. The hacker type is a variation of the first, seeing as how these hacker types were always some way or another involved in gaming culture as well. The more we followed movies forward along the time line, one of the most significant aspects of these types of movies seemed to be the fact that they were trying out different identities for gamer heroes. The Wizard had a traumatized little boy who was able to prove his worth through gaming and a whole social network of hackers in the movie Hackers. Movies like Tron had stuck the gamer hero's foot in the door of mainstream media and now people were beginning to explore and get a feel for who and what truly represented a gamer, and ultimately a gamer hero.
Throughout this period novels were also written whose protagonists happened to be gamer heroes as well. The gamer hero isn't very prolific in either film or print however people are exploring it more and more. Through this exploration and discovery we find ourselves realizing that the identity of the gamer hero can vary greatly. This, in my opinion is due mainly to the fact that, for example, anyone in a story that's into gaming (or forced into gaming) can become a gamer hero, whether it's a skinny white kid that lives in a trailer park and plays the same arcade every day like Starfighter or if you're a convicted murderer letting someone use you as an avatar for a chance at freedom. This leaves the possibilities wide open for who a hero can be or where they are from. They don't have to be a super spy that works for the government to be included into the gamer hero archetype. In fact, I believe it would be an accurate statement to say that the archetype of the gamer hero is partially characterized by the range of possible candidates that can fill the role. This is hugely beneficial to the archetype as it provides adaptability.
Finally there is the discussion of whether or not the gamer hero is truly an archetype that has been adopted by American culture. In my opinion there is no question, it is a hands down yes. Not only do we have the pop culture legitimizing spoofs contributing to the gamer hero's resume, but stories starring gamer heroes are beginning to be able to be viewed as making fairly significant commentaries on our society. The mere fact that the people are trying to speak through gamer heroes and contribute to our culture and/or comment on our society is all the proof I need to be certain that the gamer hero is here to stay, and hopefully for a very, very long time.
5.06.2010
After A Long Journey, A Warning of Things To Come
The elements which constitute the world a gamer hero belongs to, even the heroes themselves, are sometimes best described as Doctorow aptly qualifies many descriptions of the food Marcus ingests in Little Brother: "better than it sounds". For gamers like myself, or even a dedicated code crunching keyboard jockey, we get what the authors are getting at when they describe something. What might be completely off Jon Doe's radar was picked up by our short wave radios before we even unclipped them from our super sweet yellow utility belts (of course I mean the limited production models with a lead lined pocket for kryptonite, just in case... go ahead and lol, I am) and turned them on. In the past this has worked as a horrible deficit to the acceptance of the gamer hero, especially in mainstream culture. However, what one sees now are completely self sufficient social circles of solely gamers and/or righteously computer literate people. We have come to expect that, for example, the actors that portray us and the heroes based on us and our fantasies do so with a certain degree of accuracy. None of this button mashing, invisible marionette inspired movements that inevitably end up making somebody look like a fool simultaneously resulting in one less plasma TV in stock. The point here is that -- now that the gamer hero has survived the wait for our science fiction to become our science (near) future -- we not only look forward to seeing another take on how awesome it would be to save the world due to teh hotness that is us when it comes to uber gaming pwnage, but we want said pwnage to be executed relatively accurately and feasibly.
Doctorow intelligently, and usually excitedly, utilizes newer gaming methods such as ARGing -- which incidentally is what leads Marcus to the edge of the rabbit hole before the Department of Homeland Defense throws him into it for good -- and role playing staple LARPing in order to enhance his story and further define Marcus as the novel's gamer hero. This was actually a welcome change of pace from the typical shenanigans most gamer heroes get themselves into, much less plan in order to comedically gain a legitimate upper hand over their adversaries like Marcus' VampHunt LARP distraction. Doctorow declares early on that Marcus is into gaming that involves "real" physical action by describing how he transitioned into ARGing from LARPing. Alternate Reality Games are similar to LARPing, however its usually more discrete than a clearing in the middle of a park filled with geekage battling it out with (actually pretty sweet... sometimes) arts and crafts for big kids renditions of armor, clothing, and weaponry. ARGing also seems to be more goal/mission oriented, drawing similarites to the ARG Spooks from the novel Halting State and the augmented reality version of Pac-Man that was played on the streets of Singapore in 2004 and again some time NYC.
"Cory Doctorow is a fast and furious storyteller who gets the details of alternate
reality gaming right, while offering a startling, new vision of how these games
might play out in the high-stakes context of a terrorist attack."
These links won't help you prepare for a terrorist attack, but the will show you how to have some serious fun:
As I've mentioned in blogs past, the hacker is in some ways more of a derivative of the "original formula" for the gamer hero, yet an irreplaceable link in the chain of the gamer hero's overall identity. In addition, while reading Little Brother you don't ever really catch yourself thinking things like, "Even if that laser beam could have somehow transferred Flynn into the Paranoids, a computer or a laser can't generate mass from nothing, considering that once he was transferred on the drive he was electrons," or, "Wow, I didn't know that hackers had a natural reluctance or fear of hitting the shift key." While the latter quote is more of an accuracy issue I have with almost all movies that incorporate any form of computer geek or hacker. It's not a big deal, it's more of a ridiculous pet peeve of mine. The more important issue lies within the previous quote. The uneven 'geekquation' that presented itself in my head when Flynn reappeared at the end of Tron still bothers me. I know I should let it go, but even Honey, I Shrunk The Kids has a more believable crazy laser. Technically all would have had to be able to do was reduce the amount of empty space between atoms based on the fact that if you took out all the empty space a person would be smaller than the head of a pin, but I digress. What I'm getting at is that most gamer hero oriented movies like Gamer, Last Starfighter, Tron or the Wizard either incorporate a futuristic technology that even if developed would not be implemented as depicted, out of this world premise (sometimes literally), seriously flawed hypothetical technology, or simply let Jimmy get 50k on Double Dragon in the time it takes Fred Savage to ask for a cab and sort of get angry. This usually happens regardless of the type of gamer hero present, one obvious reason being that theoretical technology is usually cool, and almost always guarantees sweet special effects, even if they're made out of words and thoughts.
Doctorow does a fantastic job of employing what I explained to my dad as "implicated generation technology". What I mean by this is that Doctorow doesn't seem to come up with story first and fill in the gaps with easy fixes like the laser in Tron which served as a fix all vehicle for Flynn's trans-planar traveling. That's not to say that Little Brother was full of the types of brilliant conceptual solutions that surface almost regularly in the Ghost In The Shell series, either. Doctorow is well versed in technology related issues, sometimes severely so, which makes the mechanics for progression and development in the story seem almost as if they are maybe not next generation tech, but definitely a possible generation that is implied by the our current technology. Examples would be the iconic paranoia ware Xbox consoles and home brewed arphid cloners. The way he introduces them and the fact that they are home brewed arphid cloners means that there are most likely also manufactured models in the future, but that people have learned how to make their own from parts. The kicker is that the things the cloner is used on. For example, things like the SmarTrip Metro card I have in my pocket right now and devices that are the equivalent to a Maryland E-ZPass for tolls which is on my dad's car's windshield. Not only do current technologies exist in his futuristic landscape, but the future existence of the technology that his characters are familiar with is implied by what exists in our world. The effect is feasibility, and a cast of characters that actually mesh with their environments. The impact on a hacker type gamer hero in such a place is enormously proactive. Foremost, it greatly increases the average readers' understanding and therefore acceptance of the hacker type gamer hero. In addition, it increases overall understanding of whatever it is the hacker is doing and in the case of the hero fueling the social commentary, it narrows the gap between the metaphor and our reality. Narrowing this gap creates more tangible connections, giving the commentary more substance, thus making the commentary much more clear, relevant, and applicable all at the same time.
The struggles of gamer hero are mediated by the interfaces they engage, usually in order to interact with some sort of virtual world or simply digital information and content. This mediation commonly serves as a buffer between the trouble brewing in whatever electronic environment the hero is interacting with and the soon to be consequences for the "real" world depicted in each story. The severity of each buffer (on a story by story basis) can represent story elements such as the relative imminence of the threat posed by the antagonist(s), the degree of obstacles that a hero must overcome, and especially the status quo of technological capability and structure that "currently" exists. Considering my Gamer related argument -- presented in my last post that suggested that the gamer hero can act as a vehicle for commentary on society's relationship with modern and potential technologies -- the buffer of each story could represent warnings or cautions and predictions of real world conflicts that are analagous to its fictional implications.
The two most pertinent possibilites I can deduce are:
1.The amount and variations of freedoms that individuals
have to utilize technology
vs.
The amount and methods of control that organizations
and governing bodies exercise through technology to
create/enforce/maintain/manipulate a desired "order"
in the physical world
2.A suggested time frame within which societally dynamic
events and/or actions could take place and retain their
capacity for potentially affecting possible resolutions of the major
conflict(s) -- regardless of which "side" wins out -- that
challenge the worlds of our gamer heroes and heroines
should these events manifest themselves in our society(ies).
These two Inherent in any social commentary there is usually some sort of warning or caution with varying degrees of severity. The overriding message in Little Brother was personified by Marcus and elaborated on through his internal and social struggles. This message that I took away from reading the novel is this: We all have certain inalienable rights, most important of all our freedom. The government is meant to facilitate our well being and the well being of the country. If they cannot do this without taking away our freedom it is our right and responsibility to "debug" the way we are governed. Although Marcus is the most well developed hacker type gamer hero I have ever come across, considering to his LARPing and ARGin he combines those characteristics with the frontier of what a standard gamer hero, making him somewhat of a hybrid gamer hero, the most evolved type of gamer hero we have discussed so far.
Doctorow intelligently, and usually excitedly, utilizes newer gaming methods such as ARGing -- which incidentally is what leads Marcus to the edge of the rabbit hole before the Department of Homeland Defense throws him into it for good -- and role playing staple LARPing in order to enhance his story and further define Marcus as the novel's gamer hero. This was actually a welcome change of pace from the typical shenanigans most gamer heroes get themselves into, much less plan in order to comedically gain a legitimate upper hand over their adversaries like Marcus' VampHunt LARP distraction. Doctorow declares early on that Marcus is into gaming that involves "real" physical action by describing how he transitioned into ARGing from LARPing. Alternate Reality Games are similar to LARPing, however its usually more discrete than a clearing in the middle of a park filled with geekage battling it out with (actually pretty sweet... sometimes) arts and crafts for big kids renditions of armor, clothing, and weaponry. ARGing also seems to be more goal/mission oriented, drawing similarites to the ARG Spooks from the novel Halting State and the augmented reality version of Pac-Man that was played on the streets of Singapore in 2004 and again some time NYC.
"Cory Doctorow is a fast and furious storyteller who gets the details of alternate
reality gaming right, while offering a startling, new vision of how these games
might play out in the high-stakes context of a terrorist attack."
- Jane McGonical, Designer, I Love Bees
These links won't help you prepare for a terrorist attack, but the will show you how to have some serious fun:
http://gamesalfresco.com/2008/03/03/top-10-augmented-reality-demos-that-will-revolutionize-video-games/
Augmented Reality Pacman!
Smart Phone Mediated Augmented Reality
Augmented Reality Pacman!
Smart Phone Mediated Augmented Reality
Doctorow does a fantastic job of employing what I explained to my dad as "implicated generation technology". What I mean by this is that Doctorow doesn't seem to come up with story first and fill in the gaps with easy fixes like the laser in Tron which served as a fix all vehicle for Flynn's trans-planar traveling. That's not to say that Little Brother was full of the types of brilliant conceptual solutions that surface almost regularly in the Ghost In The Shell series, either. Doctorow is well versed in technology related issues, sometimes severely so, which makes the mechanics for progression and development in the story seem almost as if they are maybe not next generation tech, but definitely a possible generation that is implied by the our current technology. Examples would be the iconic paranoia ware Xbox consoles and home brewed arphid cloners. The way he introduces them and the fact that they are home brewed arphid cloners means that there are most likely also manufactured models in the future, but that people have learned how to make their own from parts. The kicker is that the things the cloner is used on. For example, things like the SmarTrip Metro card I have in my pocket right now and devices that are the equivalent to a Maryland E-ZPass for tolls which is on my dad's car's windshield. Not only do current technologies exist in his futuristic landscape, but the future existence of the technology that his characters are familiar with is implied by what exists in our world. The effect is feasibility, and a cast of characters that actually mesh with their environments. The impact on a hacker type gamer hero in such a place is enormously proactive. Foremost, it greatly increases the average readers' understanding and therefore acceptance of the hacker type gamer hero. In addition, it increases overall understanding of whatever it is the hacker is doing and in the case of the hero fueling the social commentary, it narrows the gap between the metaphor and our reality. Narrowing this gap creates more tangible connections, giving the commentary more substance, thus making the commentary much more clear, relevant, and applicable all at the same time.
The struggles of gamer hero are mediated by the interfaces they engage, usually in order to interact with some sort of virtual world or simply digital information and content. This mediation commonly serves as a buffer between the trouble brewing in whatever electronic environment the hero is interacting with and the soon to be consequences for the "real" world depicted in each story. The severity of each buffer (on a story by story basis) can represent story elements such as the relative imminence of the threat posed by the antagonist(s), the degree of obstacles that a hero must overcome, and especially the status quo of technological capability and structure that "currently" exists. Considering my Gamer related argument -- presented in my last post that suggested that the gamer hero can act as a vehicle for commentary on society's relationship with modern and potential technologies -- the buffer of each story could represent warnings or cautions and predictions of real world conflicts that are analagous to its fictional implications.
The two most pertinent possibilites I can deduce are:
1.The amount and variations of freedoms that individuals
have to utilize technology
vs.
The amount and methods of control that organizations
and governing bodies exercise through technology to
create/enforce/maintain/manipulate a desired "order"
in the physical world
2.A suggested time frame within which societally dynamic
events and/or actions could take place and retain their
capacity for potentially affecting possible resolutions of the major
conflict(s) -- regardless of which "side" wins out -- that
challenge the worlds of our gamer heroes and heroines
should these events manifest themselves in our society(ies).
These two Inherent in any social commentary there is usually some sort of warning or caution with varying degrees of severity. The overriding message in Little Brother was personified by Marcus and elaborated on through his internal and social struggles. This message that I took away from reading the novel is this: We all have certain inalienable rights, most important of all our freedom. The government is meant to facilitate our well being and the well being of the country. If they cannot do this without taking away our freedom it is our right and responsibility to "debug" the way we are governed. Although Marcus is the most well developed hacker type gamer hero I have ever come across, considering to his LARPing and ARGin he combines those characteristics with the frontier of what a standard gamer hero, making him somewhat of a hybrid gamer hero, the most evolved type of gamer hero we have discussed so far.
Taking a Joke Builds Character, Character No Longer a Joke
This week Mark and I are focusing on both Gamer(2008) and Grandma's Boy(2006). More specifically, the fact that the gamer hero in Gamer is both a source and a catalyst for a social commentary, and the ways that a spoof like Grandma's Boy actually work towards validating the gamer hero as an archetype.
I want to start off by saying that whatever you might have heard about the movie Gamer, it was a good movie with great action and high caliber acting throughout. If you're able accept that the way things are set up in the movie actually work(I'll explain what these "things" are below) and follow the events within from there, the movie has the potential of a commentary on games and society by virtue of the gamer hero. Society has taken issue with video games and their influences on individuals and culture, positive and negative alike. However it is only recently that gamer culture and a mainstream interest in computer literacy has flowered. Changing times have given new life to the plausibility of a gamer hero to come along and actually make such a statement, especially in a movie as opposed to a novel. Especially considering the relatively limited time to develop both the plausibility of the emergence of gamer heroes with identities similar to Kable and a complex story line that can support commentaries.
Equally as important to the chronicling of the evolution of the gamer hero, insofar as establishing significance, is Grandma's Boy. This comedy is laden with drug references, ridiculous characters, and completely implausible situational funny akin to other spoofs like Austin Powers or Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon(which is epic by the way). The simple fact that Grandma's Boy was even made suggests a strong degree of confirmation of the gamer hero's existence as a recognizable theatrical archetype. Spoofs are made with key archetypes in mind, exaggerating the qualities and quirks of said archetypes throughout the movie. Grandma's Boy exploits the stereotype that "gamers live in their parents' basement" throughout. By the conclusion of the movie Alex's grandma, who he lives with, proves that Alex did in fact create the game "Demonik"; which antagonist and overall uber nerd JP, aka Mr. Roboto, solicits as the new spawn of his genius in lieu of his failure to create a sequel to Eternal Death Slayer. The stereotype is further exaggerated in Alex's friend who calls his parents roommates, wears footie pajamas, and sleeps in a car-bed. Grandma's Boy also introduces a gamer hero that we haven't seen before on this blog, the game creator. However, this is largely overlooked and is mainly used as a premise for a final showdown between Alex the "cool" gamer and "JP" (in quotes because JP isn't really a person -- he's probably giddily giggle-snorting with pride at that statement -- he's the embodiment of every loserly and anti-social stereotype the director could cram into a black pleather trench coat -- initiate robotic ability: wall camouflage).
Before I get back to Gamer, I want to point out one thing: this is an analysis of how the gamer hero in Gamer played an critical role in the development of a possible social commentary based on the concepts of Gamer, not necessarily my opinion, but food for thought nonetheless. This movie is centered around one specific character as the gamer hero, known to the world as Kable(Gerard Butler) in the live action MMOFPS "Slayers". The game was created by the movie's villain as an alternative for death row inmates. If they survive enough rounds then they are granted their freedom, similar to the movie Running Man. Both Arnold's character in Running Man and Kable are wrongly convicted of murder. Coincidentally enough, both crimes were allegedly committed while each was serving in the armed forces, both convictions were part of military related cover ups, and although it is believed that both men are brutal murderers, they are for the most part cheered on by fans of the games they must win in order to expose the truth and live to tell about it. Not only that, but each of them are ultimately forced to break the (same, literally) rules of their respective games ftw and with at least one identical goal: to put an end to the games that made them a gamer hero in the first place. This irony is not lost at all on Gamer. The main difference between Running Man and Gamer is that the players of gamer are literally not in control of their own destinies. Inmates who volunteer for Slayers are controlled by actual gamers via something called a "Nanex", a nanotechnology that functions as cellular copy and paste/replace for the neurons in their brains. Each Nanex has it's own IP address with a metaphorical "read only" property, effectively making each convict a puppet controlled by a paying customer or subscriber for each scheduled conflict. To gauge what this might feel like, imagine having the most vivid dream about being inside your favorite FPS. Only before each match that lucid ability to control yourself in the dream world is handed over to someone you never meet and cannot communicate with, almost as if your subconscious took over forcing you to be a first person witness until you wake up. Oh, and the dream is actually a live fire exercise, your subconscious is some punk kid, and there's no respawning. Ever. Consider the metaphorical implications keeping in mind that what the Nanex does is allow someone else to "play you" via wireless internet connections. Kable doesn't simply zonk out when the game starts, he is completely aware of everything going on around him, maintains his senses, but must execute commands submitted by his player. In an eerie sense, it would follow logically that Kable, mentally speaking, becomes his own subconscious every time the game starts. As uncomfortable as this sensation must be, Kable, like every other playable convict, becomes a victim of ping. The same mechanism was initially utilized in the movie to create a live action social simulator like Second Life, aptly titled "Society", where people are payed to be the avatars of subscribers who have complete control over them, emotes and everything<>.
Although all of this may seem like a mere summary of the technological aspect of the movie, it serves as the premise on which a deep social commentary can be founded. Obviously this would never happen in real life regardless of technological capabilities, it is a metaphor for not only desensitization through gaming but the costs and consequences of gross sacrifices of basic human freedom. Can you even imagine the psychological destruction among the 'actors' of Society caused by griefers or people that treat the sim as something between LARPing and interactive porn? What about the convicts who are forced to watch others less than 30 feet away fall victim to the innumerable horrifying ways to be mutilated beyond recognition and then seeing the result of some irreverent asshole player using the crouch button to follow up his kill by making his convict teabag the fallen "enemy" (this actually takes place in the opening sequences of Gamer). Like I said before, this wouldn't happen in real life to begin with, however the movie exaggerates such things on a relatively consistent scale and makes you think about the nature of the things that we as a gaming society not only accept as executable actions in a game or sim, but in many cases have come to expect. For example, compare the assumed jump in the movie from virtual gaming to using people as avatars to our jump from representational depictions of sexually explicit and/or incredibly violent actions to the demand for photo-realistic depictions of these abilities (would you like some hot coffee with your chainsaw bayonet?). Since when did it become so lame to squish a Goomba dead with the full pasta enhanced body weight of a jovial Italian plumber that we needed to see the infrared spectrum of mist escaping from the exit wound of some Russian commi bastard's cranial soft spot preceded by audio feedback with the uncanny resemblance of splitting a melon with a hammer? (from killing in Mario to killing inSOCOM II)
The fact of the matter is that when you see these atrocities happen to real people, in spite of the knowledge that it's just special effects, you can't help but realize that there entire genres of games whose base mechanics are based around a plethora of ways to brutally make your enemies extinct. And yet, culturally, we sanction the escape into worlds where the unspeakable is possible, for a fee, at the same time that we pass laws that basically mean we prohibit young people from purchasing certain games because we don't think that they are ready to be exposed to the content inside. You might say we do the same with movies, however this is more akin to the sale of alcohol or tobacco due to the fact that games are interactive. The gamer hero's roles in Gamer are to portray the fullest extent to which a gaming avatar can ever evolve and provide a humanistic perspective from those front lines. Without Kable, the movie would have been a killing spree and hardly much more. In the end Kable is victorious and the Nanex network is taken offline similar to the "deletion" of the virtual world in the novel Epic by Conor Kostick, ensuring that this incredibly depraved behavior will not be repeated. It is through Kable's actions and the actions of those that aided him in his goals that the metaphor is preserved and a social commentary is able to take form.
I want to start off by saying that whatever you might have heard about the movie Gamer, it was a good movie with great action and high caliber acting throughout. If you're able accept that the way things are set up in the movie actually work(I'll explain what these "things" are below) and follow the events within from there, the movie has the potential of a commentary on games and society by virtue of the gamer hero. Society has taken issue with video games and their influences on individuals and culture, positive and negative alike. However it is only recently that gamer culture and a mainstream interest in computer literacy has flowered. Changing times have given new life to the plausibility of a gamer hero to come along and actually make such a statement, especially in a movie as opposed to a novel. Especially considering the relatively limited time to develop both the plausibility of the emergence of gamer heroes with identities similar to Kable and a complex story line that can support commentaries.
Equally as important to the chronicling of the evolution of the gamer hero, insofar as establishing significance, is Grandma's Boy. This comedy is laden with drug references, ridiculous characters, and completely implausible situational funny akin to other spoofs like Austin Powers or Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon(which is epic by the way). The simple fact that Grandma's Boy was even made suggests a strong degree of confirmation of the gamer hero's existence as a recognizable theatrical archetype. Spoofs are made with key archetypes in mind, exaggerating the qualities and quirks of said archetypes throughout the movie. Grandma's Boy exploits the stereotype that "gamers live in their parents' basement" throughout. By the conclusion of the movie Alex's grandma, who he lives with, proves that Alex did in fact create the game "Demonik"; which antagonist and overall uber nerd JP, aka Mr. Roboto, solicits as the new spawn of his genius in lieu of his failure to create a sequel to Eternal Death Slayer. The stereotype is further exaggerated in Alex's friend who calls his parents roommates, wears footie pajamas, and sleeps in a car-bed. Grandma's Boy also introduces a gamer hero that we haven't seen before on this blog, the game creator. However, this is largely overlooked and is mainly used as a premise for a final showdown between Alex the "cool" gamer and "JP" (in quotes because JP isn't really a person -- he's probably giddily giggle-snorting with pride at that statement -- he's the embodiment of every loserly and anti-social stereotype the director could cram into a black pleather trench coat -- initiate robotic ability: wall camouflage).
Before I get back to Gamer, I want to point out one thing: this is an analysis of how the gamer hero in Gamer played an critical role in the development of a possible social commentary based on the concepts of Gamer, not necessarily my opinion, but food for thought nonetheless. This movie is centered around one specific character as the gamer hero, known to the world as Kable(Gerard Butler) in the live action MMOFPS "Slayers". The game was created by the movie's villain as an alternative for death row inmates. If they survive enough rounds then they are granted their freedom, similar to the movie Running Man. Both Arnold's character in Running Man and Kable are wrongly convicted of murder. Coincidentally enough, both crimes were allegedly committed while each was serving in the armed forces, both convictions were part of military related cover ups, and although it is believed that both men are brutal murderers, they are for the most part cheered on by fans of the games they must win in order to expose the truth and live to tell about it. Not only that, but each of them are ultimately forced to break the (same, literally) rules of their respective games ftw and with at least one identical goal: to put an end to the games that made them a gamer hero in the first place. This irony is not lost at all on Gamer. The main difference between Running Man and Gamer is that the players of gamer are literally not in control of their own destinies. Inmates who volunteer for Slayers are controlled by actual gamers via something called a "Nanex", a nanotechnology that functions as cellular copy and paste/replace for the neurons in their brains. Each Nanex has it's own IP address with a metaphorical "read only" property, effectively making each convict a puppet controlled by a paying customer or subscriber for each scheduled conflict. To gauge what this might feel like, imagine having the most vivid dream about being inside your favorite FPS. Only before each match that lucid ability to control yourself in the dream world is handed over to someone you never meet and cannot communicate with, almost as if your subconscious took over forcing you to be a first person witness until you wake up. Oh, and the dream is actually a live fire exercise, your subconscious is some punk kid, and there's no respawning. Ever. Consider the metaphorical implications keeping in mind that what the Nanex does is allow someone else to "play you" via wireless internet connections. Kable doesn't simply zonk out when the game starts, he is completely aware of everything going on around him, maintains his senses, but must execute commands submitted by his player. In an eerie sense, it would follow logically that Kable, mentally speaking, becomes his own subconscious every time the game starts. As uncomfortable as this sensation must be, Kable, like every other playable convict, becomes a victim of ping. The same mechanism was initially utilized in the movie to create a live action social simulator like Second Life, aptly titled "Society", where people are payed to be the avatars of subscribers who have complete control over them, emotes and everything<
Although all of this may seem like a mere summary of the technological aspect of the movie, it serves as the premise on which a deep social commentary can be founded. Obviously this would never happen in real life regardless of technological capabilities, it is a metaphor for not only desensitization through gaming but the costs and consequences of gross sacrifices of basic human freedom. Can you even imagine the psychological destruction among the 'actors' of Society caused by griefers or people that treat the sim as something between LARPing and interactive porn? What about the convicts who are forced to watch others less than 30 feet away fall victim to the innumerable horrifying ways to be mutilated beyond recognition and then seeing the result of some irreverent asshole player using the crouch button to follow up his kill by making his convict teabag the fallen "enemy" (this actually takes place in the opening sequences of Gamer). Like I said before, this wouldn't happen in real life to begin with, however the movie exaggerates such things on a relatively consistent scale and makes you think about the nature of the things that we as a gaming society not only accept as executable actions in a game or sim, but in many cases have come to expect. For example, compare the assumed jump in the movie from virtual gaming to using people as avatars to our jump from representational depictions of sexually explicit and/or incredibly violent actions to the demand for photo-realistic depictions of these abilities (would you like some hot coffee with your chainsaw bayonet?). Since when did it become so lame to squish a Goomba dead with the full pasta enhanced body weight of a jovial Italian plumber that we needed to see the infrared spectrum of mist escaping from the exit wound of some Russian commi bastard's cranial soft spot preceded by audio feedback with the uncanny resemblance of splitting a melon with a hammer? (from killing in Mario to killing inSOCOM II)
The fact of the matter is that when you see these atrocities happen to real people, in spite of the knowledge that it's just special effects, you can't help but realize that there entire genres of games whose base mechanics are based around a plethora of ways to brutally make your enemies extinct. And yet, culturally, we sanction the escape into worlds where the unspeakable is possible, for a fee, at the same time that we pass laws that basically mean we prohibit young people from purchasing certain games because we don't think that they are ready to be exposed to the content inside. You might say we do the same with movies, however this is more akin to the sale of alcohol or tobacco due to the fact that games are interactive. The gamer hero's roles in Gamer are to portray the fullest extent to which a gaming avatar can ever evolve and provide a humanistic perspective from those front lines. Without Kable, the movie would have been a killing spree and hardly much more. In the end Kable is victorious and the Nanex network is taken offline similar to the "deletion" of the virtual world in the novel Epic by Conor Kostick, ensuring that this incredibly depraved behavior will not be repeated. It is through Kable's actions and the actions of those that aided him in his goals that the metaphor is preserved and a social commentary is able to take form.
5.05.2010
Gamer
Gamer is a futuristic depiction of virtual interaction taken to extreme measures. The game Slayers gives death row inmates the chance of earning freedom by successfully completing 30 matches. Kable(played by Gerard Butler) is an inmate on the verge of earning his freedom in the game Slayers, he is controlled by Simon a 17 year old who is extremely good at beating the odds. Ken Castle(played by Michael C. Hall(Dexter) is the inventor of self replicating nan-nites which allow these virtual worlds to exist, Castle is the villain in this film. Castle hatches a plan to separate Kable from Simon during in-game combat rendering him a inoperable head shot target. The Humanz leader played by Luda contacts Simon before it's to late. Luda uses his elite hacking skills aparently and enables Simon to communicate with Kable. Kable asks Simon to set him free which Simon does, this eventually leads to Castle's Downfall and the reuniting of Kable with his family.
There are two hero's in this film Kable and Simon. Kable plays the role of your typical bad ass in the style of Rambo or Terminator films. Simon's character is somewhat of a new breed of gamer hero, armed with his space age internet gaming displays he defies all odds in the virtual gaming world allowing Kable to survive. Kable is only set free near the end of the movie. Kable probably would have never seen his family again if some noob controlled him (he would have ended up like the blonde chick with cornrows, as soon as I saw those cornrows I knew she was dead). Simon was optimal in the survival of Kable in the virtual gaming world. New gamer hero'swill emerge that keep close great knowledge of technology, people today that hold these significant tech skills are viewed as elite and posses heroic like qualities(although there are some exceptions like that fat guy eating waffles in the film).
There are two hero's in this film Kable and Simon. Kable plays the role of your typical bad ass in the style of Rambo or Terminator films. Simon's character is somewhat of a new breed of gamer hero, armed with his space age internet gaming displays he defies all odds in the virtual gaming world allowing Kable to survive. Kable is only set free near the end of the movie. Kable probably would have never seen his family again if some noob controlled him (he would have ended up like the blonde chick with cornrows, as soon as I saw those cornrows I knew she was dead). Simon was optimal in the survival of Kable in the virtual gaming world. New gamer hero'swill emerge that keep close great knowledge of technology, people today that hold these significant tech skills are viewed as elite and posses heroic like qualities(although there are some exceptions like that fat guy eating waffles in the film).
Gamer & Grandma's Boy
Grandma's Boy is one of my favorite current day gamer hero depictions. The hero in this film is Alex played by Allan Covert. At the start of the film Alex is forced to move out of his apartment because his friend josh spends all the rent money on Filipino hookers. Alex is forced to move in with his friend Jeff who still lives with his parents. An embarrassing encounter occurs between Alex and Jeff's Mom (he ejaculates on her as she opens the bathroom door), Alex is forced to move in with his grandmother. Alex's job as a game tester is pushed to the limits as he struggles to do all of his grandmother's various chores, and try to pull his grandmother and friends away from Antique's Roadshow. Alex's arch rival J.P. is classified as a "mega nerd" he is the prime example of all that could go wrong within a gamer. Alex is pitted against J.P. in competition for Samantha (an object of desire among all those at the office). The movie ends with Alex getting the girl, Alex's grandmother defeating J.P. in Eternal Death Slayer.
The hero in this movie is a more down to earth depiction of gamer hero. The movie frequently exploits his weakness's unlike the other movies viewed. In this movie the hero is not fighting some epic battle in the stars, he is fighting the battle of actual problems that could occur in real life. In the scene where Alex burns both hands on the cookie sheet it lets the viewer know that he is not some super being, this adds to a more realistic premise and allows the viewer to relate to the hero. But overall the reason why Alex is the hero in the movie is because he is cool, funny, extremely good at video games, and he is liked by all (except Jeff's Mom). I guess the main reason why this movie depiction of the gamer hero is so good because it shows you don't have to be from the Matrix to be a hero, and if you are from the Matrix everyone will laugh at you! ("you would if you had robot ears"-J.P.)
The hero in this movie is a more down to earth depiction of gamer hero. The movie frequently exploits his weakness's unlike the other movies viewed. In this movie the hero is not fighting some epic battle in the stars, he is fighting the battle of actual problems that could occur in real life. In the scene where Alex burns both hands on the cookie sheet it lets the viewer know that he is not some super being, this adds to a more realistic premise and allows the viewer to relate to the hero. But overall the reason why Alex is the hero in the movie is because he is cool, funny, extremely good at video games, and he is liked by all (except Jeff's Mom). I guess the main reason why this movie depiction of the gamer hero is so good because it shows you don't have to be from the Matrix to be a hero, and if you are from the Matrix everyone will laugh at you! ("you would if you had robot ears"-J.P.)
4.28.2010
Hackers & The Wizard
As the iconic portrayal of the gamer hero emerges throughout the decades new characteristics are being applied that pertain to newer technological advances. In the film Hackers the hero can be described as trustworthy, intelligent, owning expert video game and hacking abilities, and as always irresistible to the female protagonist. At the start of the film a Seattle youth named Dade "Zero Cool" Murphy is arrested and charged, at the age of 11, with crashing 1,507 systems in one day and causing a single-day 7-point drop in the Stock Market. As a result he is banned from owning or operating computers or touch-tone telephones until his 18th birthday. As Dade enters high school he is introduced to a woman named Kate who seems to strike his interest most sexually. As Dade slowly unravels the puzzle of a mysterious hacker named Acid Burn he soon finds out it is actually Kate and the two team up along with friends( including Shaggy from Scooby Doo, who apperently plays the 90's version of Shaggy in this film, Scooby is played by Angelina Jolie she is definetly no Laura Croft in this film). As the team unravels the plan of the evil foe called "The Plaugue" (which is the lead security official of an oil corporation). Dade's friends are in danger of The Plauge and it is up to him to save the day. After pulling off some impressive hacking tricks Dade is able to expose The Plauge of his evil plan and justify his surpremacy as an apha hacker. The hero in this movie does not beat anyone up or kill anyone, it is his up to date exquiste technological skills that seperate him fro the norm of the average computer nerd/hacker. This hero's characteristics have evolved with the new wave of technology that was the e-hype of the 90's. The internet was relativly new then and someone possesing superior abilities in hacking were veiwed as "godlike".
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