ethnographic video games
DESCRIPTION
Presentation delivered at the 2014 Ugnayang Pang-Agham Tao Conference in Baguio City, Philippines. For notes, questions or comments, email me at [email protected]TRANSCRIPT
Ethnographic Video Games
LORINA NAVARRO
navarro. lor ina@gmai l .com
UGAT Conference 2014 / / baguio ci ty, phi l ippines
U s i ng g a m e s fo r e thno g ra p h i c re p re s e nta t i o ns
G E L V E Z O N - T E Q U I , O F E L I A . V I S I O N S O F A B O D H I S A T T V A 1 9 9 9 . B U L W A G A N N G D A N G A L . H T T P : / / G E L V E Z O N - T E Q U I . V I T E N E T . C O M / G A L L E R Y / 2 0 0 2 - E X H I B I T . H T M L
My name is Lorina, and I am a gamer
About the Gaming Industry
$75.2 billion dollars in expected global revenue (2014)
59% of Americans play videogames
48% of gamers are women
The average gamer is 31 years old
H T T P : / / W W W . T H E E S A . C O M / F A C T S / P D F S / E S A _ E F _ 2 0 1 4 . P D FH T T P : / / W W W . N E W Z O O . C O M / I N F O G R A P H I C S / G L O B A L - G A M E S - M A R K E T - R E P O R T - I N F O G R A P H I C S /
Games cut across classes, genders and geographies.
Serious Games
Urban Planning
Social impact games
Papers, Please
Anthropology and Games
Cultural meanings of “play”
Ethnographies of gaming communities
“The virtual borrows from the real, but the real is also virtual“Tom Boelstorff
A card from Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson’s board game “Democracies and Dictators”
Video Games made by Anthropologists?
As far as I know: none
What is a Game?
“A game is an activity defined by rules in which players try to reach some sort of goal.”
“A video game is a cultural object, bound by history and materiality, consisting of an electronic computational device and a game simulated in software.”
-Alexander Galloway, “Gaming: Essays on Algorithmic Culture”
Other Characteristics of Video Games
They are action-based (Galloway, 2007)
They represent a subset of reality (Crawford, 1982)
They carry beliefs within their representation systems and mechanics (Flanagan, 2009)
How will games provide a different type of ethnography?
Immersive, affective & embodied
Actively engages player decisions
Represents player in many ways (“subjective shot”, avatars)
Visual and sensory
Haptics, motion-sensing, virtual reality and more to come!
Adds depth and validity to games
Anito, a Philippine-developed game set in 16th century Philippines
(1) a system that involves players, actions and rules
(2) enriched by experience-near interpretations of culture and
(3) informed by anthropological theory
Ethnographic Video Game
Poetic and Political
Not an “objective” account of culture
Must balance cultural authenticity with artistry
Collaborative/Participatory
Game must be designed in collaboration with informants
Must allow subjects to be co-creators
Never Alone Based on Inupiaq folklore
Done in collaboration with the Inupiaq tribal council
Game contains videos and insights from Inupiaq community
Represents the underrepresented
Include different voices
Challenge power structures
Interpretive and Reflexive
Not just a simulation, but must have interpretation & theory
Need to disclose author’s biases somehow
Final words
Tools for making games
Examples: Games Factory, Game Maker, Scratch, Twine
Dys4ia, Anna Anthropy. Made with Games Factory
Games Factory Twine
Multidisciplinary Approach
Work with game designers, programmers, artists, etc.
Learn from Game Design, e.g., creating game prototypes
Problematizing representations
The spatial, temporal, the kinetic, the affective, the sensual, the material
Experiment with the “grammar” of games to get message across
Thank You!LORINA NAVARRO