Can Computer games deal the death seriously?

April 10th, 2006 SugY Posted in articles |

Since Frasca proposed OSGON(one-session game of narration) model, it is a forgotten problem how computer game can deal the death seriously. But on the other side of the earth, this problem is reborn into the real world. Japanese game researcher Inoue Akito tackles a ‘serious death’ problem.

“What is the Central Issue of Computer Game Expression? : On the Expression of the Death”
(in Japanese)

This article starts with Otsuka Eiji’s critique. he is a famous figure in Otaku culture studies. Mr. Otsuka proposed the question, “Can mass culture human death seriously?” And by himself, he answered the question. “Many fields of mass culture have tried to deal human death seriously, and through this trial, they can raise the bar of their own aesthetic standard. Especially, Tetsuka Osamu was a brilliant example.” But after this argument, he criticized computer game, because it has dealt human death superficially.

Mr. Inoue inquires into the justification of this critique. Using contents analysis, he checks the trend of the expression of human death in computer game. And he finds two trends of the expression. One is the photo-realistic trend. It is followed the technological development. Representative example is GTA3. Other is the euphemistic trend. Most examples are in All age RPG like [Dragon Quest].

Three kinds of discourse are made for these trends. On negative assessment, one position is an assertion that “photo-realistic expression makes boys be violent”, Mr. Inoue calls this ‘bad influence theory’, the other position is an assertion that “euphemistic expression of human death hides the nature of real death”, he calls this ‘hiding theory’. On positive assessment, there is Frasca’s assertion. He insisted the possibility of game to deal the death seriously. But till now, most of games could not find the way to do it. Then he suggested OSGON model. (But I think there is a game like OSGON model already. Maybe [Regret of the wind] (by Ino Genji) is this kind of game.

Mr. Inoue call Frasca’s assertion ‘the singularity of death in game’ (Frasca seems to think the singularity as the prerequisite of serious game.) Also he focused on Jesper Juul’s theory. Juul said that gamer thought the death in game just as the rule for challenge. This theory is called ‘the plurality of the death in game’ Is there some crash between Frasca and Juul? Mr. Inoue doesn’t think so. Two assertions are on different layers. Frasca’s ‘the singularity’ plays on narrative layer. But Juul’s ‘the plurality’ plays on ludic layer. Mr. Inoue wants to find the possibility of game to deal death seriously between these two layers. Then he take [Pikmin] or [Fire emblem] as the example for the possibility.

I think the strength of this article is the view through which game is seen not as a homogeneous meaning product, but as a multi-layered meaning formation. Computer game has many layers where the meaning is produced by its own way. These meanings crash each other or fuse each other or interfere with each other. So I want to call computer game as [the meaning formation].

This article sees this aspect of computer game correctly. It doesn’t put the singularity and the plurality on the same layer. First of all it divides the layers, and then puts the singularity and the plurality on them. Last, he investigates the texture of all meanings which is produced on each layers. I think this approach show the one possibility to overcome the ‘narrativist vs. ludologist’ discussion.

But this article leaves something to be desired. First of all, it doesn’t touch the most important games, which deal the death in the revolutionized way. For example, it can be took [Planescape Torment], [Baroque] and [Go beyond my body!].

Also it doesn’t touch the death in MMORPG. In Korean MMORPG scene, the suicide of ‘Drakedog’ becomes the most famous episode. (You can see this episode in this site.) How can we explain the phenomena like this? And is there different between death in single game and death in MMORPG? Maybe these problems can be solved through the co-work of Korean researchers about MMORPG and Japan researchers about single game.