http://cis-india.org/research/cis-raw/histories/gaming/attentional-capital-online-gaming

This blog post by Arun Menon discusses the concepts of production, labour and race in virtual worlds and their influence on the production of attention as a currency. An attempt is made to locate attentional capital, attentional repositories and attention currencies within gaming to examine ‘attention currencies and its trade and transactions in virtual worlds. A minimal collection of attention currencies are placed as central and as a pre-requisite for survival in MMOs in much the same way that real currency become a necessity for survival. The approach is to locate attentional capital through different perspectives as well as examine a few concepts around virtual worlds.

A Short Introduction to The Attention Economy

The Attention Economy was made prominent through the writings of Thomas Davenport and Micheal Goldhaber, who examine attention as a scarce commodity in the information rich environment, further they divulge into examining exchanges and investments of attention and their results. Not particularly a new concept, the Attention economy focuses on the examination of attention as a scarce commodity in the information-rich societies effected by the Internet and new digital technologies. The concept was first noted and written about by the political scientist Herbert Simon (1971), who notes “What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients… [and thus arises] the need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it.” In the abundance of information and access to information, the consumption or the ‘prosumption’ of information relies on the investment of attention, which becomes a scarce commodity – expended in the act of consumption. For the expended resource is no longer information or its scarcity in terms of availability – which has been the classical concerns in the industrialized market economy – but the amount of attention that is expended on the consumption of information. Economics is governed by what is scarce and the abundance of information is not a measurable function, rather what is expended in its consumption, namely human attention.

From a Cognitive Science perspective Attention can be read as the investment of focused cognitive faculties in a particular ‘prioritized’ activity. In this way attention becomes an essential factor in capital production activities, in that the investment of attention generates capital through the direction of work (labor) and time in any particular activity. Derek Lomas (2008) and Peter Hughes treat media objects as Articficial Organisms that need attention for sustenance and ‘energy’ for reproduction, somewhat in the nature of a Darwinian Struggle where the most ‘able’ and ‘fit’ organism survives. All media organisms need one crucial element to survival, sustenance, and reproduction – Attention. In viral spreads and reproduction of a media organism the possibility of its procreation and viral distribution is realized through the investment of attention – the amount which enables survival and reproduction. By extention virtual products are essentially media (artificial) organisms, and by extrapolation virtual goods and (possibly) even identities are organisms that thrive on the attention it receives for survival and reproduction.

Goldhaber (1997 – The Attention Economy and the Net First Article) notes that the Attention Economy does not indeed have a market and operates unlike post-industrial markets. Although there is considerable material influence in terms of the investments of labor, time, and real money, there is most often no direct means to measure it. Concepts of Property, dichotomies of production, work, leisure, and play requires reformulation in light of this economy thriving on attention and its monetization. Davenport and Beck (2001) reinforces a measure of Goldhaber (1997) arguments by stating that “Telecommunications bandwidth is not a problem, but human bandwidth is.” Goldhaber proceeds to say that a transfer of information must always be accompanied by a transfer of attention – measurable by the amount of time that is invested in the process.

Attention economics in earlier discourses and theses are connected with examining the failures and shortcomings of ‘the design’ of informational systems that locate, falsely, informational scarcity as the root of the problem leading to a deficit in attention, whereas the problem lies in the flow of attention itself and not information. The theories on Attention deal with a multitude of perspectives – from examining the psychological aspects, on the one hand, to economics, politics, and sociology (including a measure of anthropology) of online networks on the other. The recent research on the attention economy has largely been towards attention a) as a scarce resource that was incetivized is some manner and thus the attention currency – which is one reading of the attention currency and b) as non material capital termed most appropriately as attentional capital and as measurable as wealth is to income. Assuming that income can be measured and wealth and holding is diverse and often immeasurable. Other studies focus on incorporating attention into design such that it captures user attention and rewards the time spent on the consumption of that information – such that the prioritization is the gambit of the the providers of information hierarchies (such as Google and Yahoo) rather than the users. Prioritization of information is also prominent in the representations in the achievement hierarchy – a system common to how search engines prioritize information – only in gaming this system information pertaining to the avatar and its achievements and growth are listed. This is both internal to the game world in question as well as external in that external tools outside of the game gather and prioritize avatar information. Such practices have been (in a conceptually unanchored and semantically lose) termed as Metagaming. Defining metagaming becomes problematic in that its not a concept peripheral to the absent center of gaming rather – metagaming or activities and processes associated with metagaming become multiple centers by itself. Applying this to the secondary market may lead to interesting readings but here i digress. Attention and the flows of attention are connected to the ways in which information is hierarchized and channeled. Such that ranking systems and the achievement hierarchy moderates attention flows and shifts – players and gamers who grow in short spans of time through strategic and organizational excellence get more visibility in this hierarchy.

Attention economies are largely read and identified in online economies and ecosystems, Davenport and Beck (2001) switch this dichotomy around and attempt a reading of organizational systems and how the offline attention economy affects organization and concepts of productivity and production. But for the purposes of this study – Online gaming economies take a central focus and a generic reading of multiple MMORPG economies are attempted.

Before Castronova (2003), Castronova et al (2007), and much later Consalvo (2009) engage with questions on Virtual Economies and Gaming Worlds (for the sake of argument – lets use Castronova’s term Synthetic Worlds interchangeably with Virtual Worlds), Goldhaber and his contemporaries have already engaged with questions of production of informational goods – those that would in a primitive fashion address virtual production, consumption, and exchange of digital informational goods and the relevance of attention expended within these economies. A colloquial reading of attention is that it is always translated as the investment of labor and time in different measures. Furthermore the investment of time and labor on the consumption of any particular information is incentivized and thus prioritized based on its position in the hierarchy. The higher its visibilty the lower its incentives and vice versa. The writers on Gaming cultures and economies do not directly engage with questions of attention flows and shifts but by using their concepts on the investment of time, activities of production, cultural, avatarial, and gaming capital, as well as virtual currencies – I engage with the concept of attention as a currency necessary to survival in virtual worlds particularly in MMORPGs, where there are elements of progress, exploration, conquest, warfare and constant struggle.

An investment in Attention always ‘seeks’ a reciprocity in attention, such that an investment ensures a positive net gain either directly or indirectly owing to a growth in the attention repositories or collection of attentional capital. This need not be manifest in the service -provider user relationship but the user-user relationship. This enables reading the production of attention and the systematic means by which attention is channeled through a complex system of hierarchies in society as well as in the Virtual Gaming Worldsⁱ more accessible.

Attention can also be approached as the necessity for survival in human society, in much the same manner as human society is dependent on the flows of attention for the development of the individual or group in a society or community. It can be argued that attention inevitably forms a basic necessity that indirectly influences survival, sustenance, and reproduction. Production of attention, production of virtual goods, and the production of attentional capital (extended concept of avatarial capital) are dependent on the minimal and pre-requisite investment in attention. The focus of this paper is to pitch Attention as a currency, a currency that can be examined as one only when certain thresholds of attention have been achieved; and relevant to the survival in MMORPG gaming worlds. Worlds that are capable of viable social and economic interaction.

Questions on the attention economy is inevitably connected to questions of production and consumption and more recently prod-usage and pro-sumption (hyphenated for emphasis) in digital technology mediated environments, be they graphically represented complex virtual worlds or text based MUDs.

Although irrelevant to this trajectory, the attention economy has also been approached from a systems and organizational perspective, which is what Davenport and Beck (2001) focus on. Similar studies revolves around examining attention flows in Social Network Systems (SNS) – Lomas (2008) and maximizing user value – Huberman and Wu (2008).

Edward Castronova (Professor at Indiana University) will be giving a guest lecture titled Magic and Money, on June 4th at the Copenhagen Business School while visiting the Virtual Worlds Research Group.

The Lecture will be streamed Live on the virtual worlds research group blog, please check back on June 4th for the link (Under the Video Tab) at the Virtual Worlds Research Project site.The lecture will also be accompanied by Live Tweeting. Those who are interested in following Castronova’s work on virtual world economies will be interested to know that the lecture will have a strong focus on some of the concepts and theories that he has put forward in synthetic worlds.

Please note that the talk timings posted are in Copenhagen Local Time CEST.

More details below

From the organizers post on AOIR

Program
14.00 – 14.10 Welcome by Professor Flemming Poulfelt, Copenhagen Business School
14.10 – 15.50 ON MAGIC AND MONEY by Professor Edward Castronova, Indiana University
15.50 – 16.00 Closing remarks by Professor Flemming Poulfelt, Copenhagen Business School

Edward Castronova, PhD in Economics and Professor of Telecommunications, Indiana University is an expert on the economies of large-scale online games. He has numerous publications on that topic, including a book entitled Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games. Synthetic worlds are online environments where millions of users share a persistent, fabricated geographic space at the same time. These places, billed and sold as games and/or social platforms, actually seem to be offering something more than mere entertainment. They act as a fantastical alternative to ordinary life, and as such they pose a significant challenge to business-as-usual in ordinary society: markets, public policy, politics, law, romance. In the area of economics, one pressing issue involves the extent to which people are paying real money to buy items for their game characters, thus blurring the distinction between the game economy and the real one.
Chronicle of Higher Education’s review excerpt: “Synthetic Worlds is a surprisingly profound book about the social, political, and economic issues arising from the emergence of vast multiplayer games on the Internet. What Castronova has realized is that these games, where players contribute considerable labor in exchange for things they value, are not merely like real economies, they are real economies, displaying inflation, fraud, Chinese sweatshops, and some surprising in-game innovations.”
See also http://mypage.iu.edu/~castro/ and http://terranova.blogs.com/

Derek Lomas is a PhD student at the Human-Computer Institute at Carnegie Mellon. His work discussed here is on the year long ethnographic study of Myspace.com users. More details of his work and other projects can be found here http://socialmovement.org/. Derek Lomas devices and designs learning games, and games as learning aids to aid national curriculum goals.

In the article ‘Attentional Capital and the ecology of online social networks’, Lomas focuses on attention focus and flow through the associational attributes created in a profile. Which is often an attempt by the user at self representation and an extending this would imply that the attempt is at gathering attention. Rather than his discourse on the relevance of attention in human society and how we often approach attention as a collective focus of cognitive resources, I am more interested in reading attention as a capital resource that can then be traded as a currency (and therefore also imply assumed or illusory attention, which is present in attention transactions – as Goldhaber notes in Attention Economy: the natural economy of the net).

The media distribution networks and the centrality of these networks that ensure efficient distribution becomes the root cause for the massive change in the means by which we notice attention gaining relevance as a commodity and a currency (yes we pay attention to it, which feeds the attention economy). With the advent of networking and media sharing, the centralized structures have degenerated with viral networks gaining more prominence. The centrality is broken, as Lomas rightly points out, by the intervention of new technologies that create new social structures and with it new forms of media distribution (through viral networks). Although the reading is limited to Social Networking Sites (a detailed ethnographic study of Myspace.com in particular) almost all online gaming depends on an element of team play or community play, and thus a strong element of social networks are present and active. It is thus reasonable to argue that social profiles and character profiles in gaming sites would function in very much the same way as Lomas suggests it does through the Ethnographic research on Myspace. Although attention has been examined as an investment and Time (spent on an activity) and work (read as labor and as production), which becomes the basic premise to this thesis. There is a generous focus on social interaction and the systems of association to cultural and political symbols central to self-representation, which is where any repositories that I argue for can be primarily located.

Lomas’ introduction to the distribution system is relevant since, the technologies also promote self-distribution along with the self-representsation that Lomas describes. The representation is not idle, but viral, which is where attention comes into the human social interplay of networks. Thus the distribution that media transfers are associated with also partakes in attention distribution. The distribution system although would be (ideally) the internal distribution networks (attention distribution I would argue takes place through a) character/player profiles, and b) ranking systems). Internal game networks are easier to locate than external monitoring tools (which also assist in ranking and attention distribution, but would be hard to locate impact without extensive and specific studies).

Lomas serves as an adhesive between Attention Economy Theorists and Gaming and Virtual worlds theorists, for his definition of attention makes it possible to read Castronova, Consalvo, Dibbell, and Taylor in light of their writings on Production, Labor, and Time (what is often also called as Game Time – in Castronova and Consalvo). The capitalization of attention (at least in a distanced mass media / new media perspective) would depend on the capital that is expended or invested to obtain it. The scarcity of attention and the capitalization that it allows then becomes the driving force of most design outlets that produce and sustain MMORPG products, and this is reiterated in Castronova, virtual economies would not thrive without artificially introduced attention sinks, or rather in-game resources that are ‘made’ artificially scarce, with detailed processes attached to its production (for instance a Game Item Mithril can be obtained through mining), the mines are scarce and ‘mining attempts’ are also scarce which makes obtaining it quite hard, even through other sources such as trades and lottery). The instilled scarcity is part of the design, be it a RTS single player or an Online MMORPG, both require investments in time foe the production (efficient) of resources such that the player can gain an advantage (either against other players and/or the NPC/AI).

The approach through cognitive science is interesting for it points out the – momentary awareness of a set of elements and their relations through the unified focus of cognitive resources. Focused attention is short, available in brief bursts and thus scarce in virtual worlds from the user perspective. Interesting because material investments do not count for as much as attention investments – unless it can be argued that attention investments are naturally linked to material gains (not necessarily real currency all the time, but also other material gains through growth or investment in reputation, trust, and so forth).

Connections with Castronova can be made where resource production and attention application in virtual worlds and economies are concerned, and by extension all gaming and mmorpg economies. He focuses on the induced artificial scarcity of in-game resources and associated ranking systems that then elicit a focused attention (measured through virtual labor and investment of time) on activities of mining, grinding, and other forms of virtual resource production. The production and distribution of these virtual goods and by extension the attention that is invested in them in gaming worlds are dependent also on design and structure. The design that allows for the use of certain items and the structure (of social interaction that Lomas refers to) that allows certain forms of communication and interaction and thus trade. So for attention to actually perform functions of a currency the architecture both by design and the network should be able to sufficiently support social interaction (even if it not real-time and text based).

The fact that attention can be focused on only one thing at a time (theoretically 10 different games can be played at a time, but no whole gameplay experiences will be accessible without focused attention), makes the duration of the gained attention so much more valuable. Note that the rewards system does not apply in the same manner in goldfarming where the focus is not production alone and not associated gameplay experiences. Attention becomes a highly scarce resource required for the production, reproduction, and viral distribution of media organisms, and by extension even virtual goods. Attention, either through streamlined flows, or lack of them become the resource and currency of survival. Survival of the good, which survives through proliferation, and survival of the user who engages in (the process of?) reproduction and gains currency- attention, virtual, and real.

Lomas describes identity signals and coordination of cultural values, by creating profiles with shortened biographies where identities are often represented by Interests. The interests and short biography in Myspace.com become the anchorage by which attention is channeled, and the system is not so different in gaming profiles. Self-representation and forms of association outside and inside game worlds gather the necessary pre-requisite attention that then forms the basic currency of survival. Reciprocity and association with certain groups and communities create an in-group identification through which attention channels are manipulated and flows made to benefit the users profile. The profile pages and self-representation (which Lomas looks at in Myspace and is no different for character profiles in gaming worlds) assists in the construction (or gathering if you will) of attention through association to build a basic repository of sorts. I argue that the repository at a later stage reaches sufficient threshold to trade and engage in economic and social activity. (explored in later posts).

In the earlier case Lomas refers to user [self] representation as a mechanism to identify with cultural symbols (understood as a basic necessity for a community that constructs itself around certain prominent symbols), which sometimes points to larger movements than apparent – he refers to clothing, pictures, and styles adopted by some users in their profile pictures, or through interests. These form identifiable and locatable symbols that can be measured in terms of the associations that are brought in and the attempt (even if unsuccessful) at building a basic attention repository.

A very similar activity is common in constructing player characters in mmorpg settings. The same in-group or out-group identification that Lomas refers to (although he does not specifically state the cultural identification as an in-group activity, it seems reasonably implied) can be read as a mechanism that uses player or gamer profiles form as basic attention repositories.

Travian, Eternal Duel, Imperia Online, Three Kingdoms Online, are some examples of text based (or minor graphics based) MMORPGs (Travian and TKO being MMORTS) all of which survive on a basic graphics and text based profile settings show player allegiances, or clan markings whereas the entire length of the profile is dedicated to text (where images or links can be embedded). The actual lines of text allowed varies but it suffices to note that a few descriptive lines are used to denote (most often than not) player strategy and PNAPs (personal Non-Aggression pacts) such similar mechanisms along with other descriptors that contribute to associating with other more powerful players indicates an amount of illusory attention (Goldhaber) against which the future (if any) of further trading (of almost anything) is set.

The display and exchange of media through profiles (in cases such as these – text, graphics, links to other profile pages are also considered as media) facilitates a setting for the sharing of common interests and cultural attitudes and outlooks. We like communicating with others who have similar or near similar dispositions as our own. This also deepens any community identification that the player has. These processes thus not only create an attention channel for the selective flow of attention (I say selective because most if not all self representation and in-group identification is motivated to control the types of interactions and people desired by the user).

Later on I would be arguing for a repository of attention that is essential and (in a few select cases) crucial for survival in persistent as well as speed server versions of mmorpgs. Attention flows through associations of various varieties particularly listed or hinted through profile messages, building up the repositories to a threshold that then facilitates either internal trade and/or external trade and is also dependent on locatable internal ranking mechanisms.

Lomas’ Article is available here



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The paper locates the discourses on attention currencies and economies and attempts to locate the role of attention as a currency in trading within MMORPG ecosystems. Known discourses do not locate the influence of attention currencies and their relevance in trade practices in internal and secondary markets. Attention is introduced as a third currency within MMORPG economies.

I Posit that attention influences all trading activities in the internal and secondary markets and by observing dominant trades and traders – in virtual worlds that support basic social interaction and exchange – locate attention that performs the function of a currency, enabling an exchange of goods. I explore how trading can be influenced by attention channeled through the games own internal systems and external management tools, by which some avatars are made visible and others invisible – i. e. through the in-game and external ranking systems and hierarchies formed around them. Although resembling the Matthew Effect, where attention flows are unequal – due to illusory attention – and focused on some of the most prominent avatars. Where multiple points of consolidation of avatars are concerned, the Matthew Effect fails to hold true as there is fluctuation – not continuous accrual of benefits. Illusory attention (Goldhaber) also plays a role in that exchanges of attention are imagined to be equal – profile validation, PNAPs, and other forms of association points to the build up of illusory attention, and subsequent transactions in attention. To support claims made accounts of trading, profile pages, and other subsequent data are mentioned.

Every individual, group, or network would have to accumulate and build attention or maintain a certain threshold of attention before engaging in any forms of attention trades, either in the internal or external market. Goldhaber and Davenport point to converting attention to real currency directly measured through the time investment, also mentioned by Castronova, Nakamura, and Taylor in virtual worlds production. I posit attention as static that becomes a currency once a threshold is crossed that enables trade, the threshold can also be read as the pre-requisite attention required for survival (Goldhaber). The threshold at which a sustainable, equitable, or consensual trade takes place is also influenced by multiple points of consolidation of Avatars (of a single identifiable symbol, or handle dependent on in-group or out-group identification) across multiple virtual worlds.

Thus attention serves as a pre-requisite for survival in mmorpgs and as a hard currency for trade.

Henry Jenkins in this article posits the debate between the Ludologists and the Narratologists over reading and interpreting games. In this approach he takes a middle ground, noticed in his title, where he appropriately uses the term ‘narrative architectures’. Note that the best narrative architectures would be those which have the strongest elements of RPGs and need not necessarily be limited to a Single Player Game. An MMORPG which has the ability to creatively construct its own environment (again need not be visual, can also be textual and with minimal graphics) for its community and sustain multiple narrative experiences. These will be examined in a post further on.

I use the term narrative instead of rhetoric for the sole reason that by semantic association, the meanings tend away from ludic interpretations.

Jenkins while giving sufficient credit to game mechanics, also acknowledges narrative deployment ergo the term ‘narrative architecture’. I see its usage as extremely relevant for two reasons.

1. The heavy handed import of film theory and other classical theories are applied to interactive games and videogames with more caution.
2. Relying on Ludologists and Narratologists and their perspectives alone will not suffice in an appropriate reading of gaming spaces and architectural systems that provide for the immersive experience that we today engage with.

The merger of mechanics and the narrative reading creates a synthesis that is required in any approach to game studies that is not isolated from the humanities. Any reading of videogames until recently is strongly influenced by theories that are largely applicable to other mediums such as film and literature. Jenkins notes that narrative is conceptualized by a casual gamer as

…choose-your-own adventure book, a form noted for its lifelessness and mechanical exposition rather than enthralling entertainment, thematic sophistication, or character complexity.

(Henry Jenkins)

The immersive complexities of the ‘Game-world’ carefully crafted by designers are often compared to the lifelessness of a choose-your-own adventure book as is common. Any lay reader who approaches videogames with classical interpretations of how narratives operate in this field would be terribly handicapped in the interpretation of these designed and structured worlds. Alternatively Ian Bogost also advocates a merger between the Ludic and the rhetoric when he argues for the persuasive mechanics of the game as independent of the persuasion of technology. His argument although ludic-dependent (as i read it) would posit that the rhetoric is dependent on the procedurality of the structure (allusions to perhaps Jenkins) or the rules within the game that allow the narrative to progress and grow.

The persuasive effect of games is closely linked to the procedural for Bogost and although such a reading would be effective in locating the ‘immersive’ effects in a narrative structure deployed in (preferably an RPG)

Jenkins although falls short on two counts

1. His call for the diversification of genres is not predictive of current trends, where a merger or hybridization may be noticed.
2. Even though he takes a middle ground position he tends towards giving more focus to mechanics (when using terms such as ‘narrative architecture’) in the construction of the narrative within roleplaying games.

The diversification of genres is a call to designers to provide different experiences in gameplay for players through diverse genres. Jenkins seeks to expand the limited space for further experimentation but the most recent trends and towards mergers and hybridization. Role play is gaining relevance in the way it’s incorporated into the narrative architecture that Jenkins talks about. Although Jenkins argues for diversity, multiplicity, generic distinctions, and through that different narrative experiences. Recent Industry trends fail to locate these shifts sufficiently. In fact notable designers such as Cliff Beleszinski of Epic Games (who predominantly produce shooters) and Ray Mayzuka of Bioware argue and posit for a merger of generic elements such that regardless of generic distinctions, mergers and hybridization would lead to a state where storytelling (an RPG element) would become a prominent element in their products.

I am not suggesting that architectural deployment requires a strong narrative (something similar to Bogosts procedural dependent Rhetoric), rather these elements contribute to the discursive, dialogic qualities of an artificially constructed immersive structure.

On the relevance of narratives, Jenkins provides sufficient evidence to support the growth of narrative inclusion in gameplay but makes no such argument in the way he posits environmental story telling.

Environmental storytelling creates the preconditions for an immersive narrative experience in at least one of four ways: spatial stories can evoke pre-existing narrative associations; they can provide a staging ground where narrative events are enacted; they may embed narrative information within their mise-en-scene; or they provide resources for emergent narratives.

(Henry Jenkins)

Don Carsons writing on creating environmental storytelling spaces derived out of the theme park industry, which Jenkins uses to support his argument, has one main argument I would place as central to theorizations on the narrative structures. The immersive aspect of a game narrative derives a lot from spatial and environmental design and as such supports Jenkins narrative architecture argument. More importantly the intertextual connotations are revealed since all game narratives make an appeal to the residual and the experiential narrative. The appeal is not always visual but includes auditory and textual cues, synced and dispatched to enmesh and often impress certain dialogic responses.

By the term dialogic and dialogic responses within the game structure (or narrative architecture) i imply that the interactions between the structure and the gamer is often mediated by the responses to stimuli effectuated in the player using a variety of cues and systems. Although the more expansive environments depend on random generation to keep up long term engagements, most games almost always have an structural limitation in exploration. Eventually all games have limited structures, set out (pathed out would be a better but limited term), and almost all notable elements of RPGs such as Conflict, Progression, Exploration, Narrative eventually run out. Their dependence on residual structures make narratives more acceptable to the player, requiring a lower amount of time for adaptation and assimilation, but has subsequent changes and pathways that keep the exploration open and dialogic – by which i mean open to unique gameplay experiences enmeshed through moral choice paradigms resultant of the structural dispositions.

Why are the residual/experiential narratives an important aspect in RPGs?

All role play depends on the residual forms of narratives. For example the Dragon Age: Origins (DA:O) game makes multiple appeals to different such narratives through its own deployment of narrative architecture, here I use Jenkins again. The thematic settings and plot directives of Dragon Age: Origins is still classical Role Play in that many resemblances are noticed to the original dungeon crawler and roleplaying game – Dungeons and Dragons. The D&D series becomes a basic thematic platform for other role-playing games to emulate. This game (DA:O) becomes more accessible to those who posses these basic residual narratives collected through watching fantasy movies, exposure to fantasy novels, and games of different genres. Higher accessibility also translates often as an immersive experience that is the emotional engagement with the game world (or story). The collection of these residual narratives to create the ‘immersive’ element draws on the large generic traditions and rather than contain a story draws upon others. Metal Gear solid is probably one of the few games with really long cutscenes that take up almost as much time as the actual gameplay.

The narrative does not necessarily operate or work in a central global fashion. Jenkins emphasizes reading the localization of narrative events with as much relevance as an overall narrative, which may or may not be present. Thus the reading of any videogame for its ‘overall’ narrative or reading an entire game as a story would be extremely exclusive project since the narrative can intervene in a localized fashion. Max Payne series is an RPG shooter where the gamer follows the main character, with interventions by graphic strips as the central narrative technique that takes the plot forward. Note that in addition to the cutscenes, the graphic novel element with background music and narration provides for an interesting merger of mediums very rarely noticed in experimental games.

Interestingly on mediums and transmedia storytelling Jenkins uses Jesper Juul a ludologist who strongly argues for the development of mechanics and design rather than plotlines and story. Juuls argument is that the Star Wars game does not necessarily have to retell the story to enrich our experience of Star Wars saga. Influenced by Juul Jenkins quotes thus

[W]hat games do best will almost certainly center around their ability to give concrete shape to our memories and imaginings of the storyworld, creating an immersive environment we can wander through and interact with.

(Henry Jenkins)

Although the creation of immersive environments (there are conflicting terminologies which differ in meaning, here I imply the immersive game world) that has a certain amount of interactivity is relevant. A narrative that binds the experience either locally or in a broader fashion would be required to appeal to the residual or experiential narratives through our memories and fantasies.

Update1:

I do not focus on the Spatiality that jenkins argues for (i.e. Evocative, Enacting, Embedded, and Emergent) since i believe that narratives can be deployed simultaneously in manners not corresponding to these four types, and they broadly fall under residual systems which is the primary originator of these systems that jenkins argues for. I also believe thats embedded narratives may not be sufficiently active or applicable to MMORPGs particularly since the massive engagement creates and distributes emergent narratives through the experiences of the players. Thus the embedded systems of narratives although present may not be sufficiently reliable in an mmorpg setting where players by characterizations and representations create narratives and engage with the larger narrative discourse of the game (or popularly ascribed to as the central narrative) in different manners changing and redistributing the so-called central narrative.

More details on the terminology and similar discussions are available in the previous posts.

Digital Rights Management and the delivery systems (read softwares) used to ensure restrictions have been prominent for quite a long period in gaming. Most readers would be familiar with the DRMs and restrictive copy protection systems in Music and other Digital media. Some prominent systems were developed and deployed by Microsoft and Apple in different stages for different products, Itunes epitomizes some of Apples copy protection measures.

Digital Rights Management has been termed as misleading by the free software foundation who prefer to use the term Digital Restrictions Management which would be more accurate in the approach and intent of these systems supporting copy protection. DRM is a set of technologies, software, and in some cases hardware which limits and restricts how, when, and where we play, use, and share digital content, from Music, Videos, Games, and Software.

What are DRMs?

Copy protection has come a long way from user interactive methods to online authentication and always online DRMs. DRMs are Digital Rights Management systems and measures, largely software which prevents illegal copying of content or software preventing all but secure access to the content and other systems of copy protection. It has also been argued that the term Copy Prevention is more appropriate with regard to what these technologies attempt to do. What kinds of DRMs are gamers largely looking at? Digital Rights Management in gaming is quite similar to other software releases, which includes some manner of copy protection. Earlier most PC or console games have a Play Disc with in built copy protection measures that may range from SecuROMⁱ to a Jewel Box (a detailed analysis of copy protection systems can be found at Gamecopyworld.com). Some inbuilt bugs in pre-released versions were incorporated, such that there is no gameplay progression after a certain point, or the game crashes itself, deleting saved games if the copy is an unreleased version or limited release version which was pirated. Old games such as Dune (the first release) required keywords from the manual before progressing into the next stages. Similar and common mechanisms existed in almost all games requiring a registered license key or multiple user inputs to proceed in gameplay.

The Digital Rights Management system has also been popularly termed as the Digital Restrictions Management system particularly in the areas of Music, Videos, and Entertainment Software Packages by the Free Software Foundation, who believe that the word rights is misleading and that restrictions would be more appropriate.

Basic problems

One of the main problems with current DRMs (as with Spore, Chronicles of Riddick, and many others), is the limited installation functionality that allows a player to either of the following, here I select a few select cases to showcase a few problems with DRM implementation. Note that although I argue against stringently restrictive measures such as those by Spore and earlier Mass Effect – I do not place the problem with the DRM itself, rather the publishers who use such restrictive measures. Valve’s Gabe Newell states the same when looking at current DRM measures.

A) The Chronicles of Riddick used the TAGES protection system – there are a unlimited number of installs on one machine and the product can be installed in a total of three machines. This requires online authentication and like some of the new releases this game “phones home”, thus requiring an almost always online Internet connection. This is also dependent on the hardware profile of the machine and as such activation is not possible on one particular key if and when the hardware is upgraded.

Atari’s press release had this to say

“If you reach the maximum number of installations you can contact the Atari hotline and if it’s a legitimate request you can get a new activation code.

We implement this protection in an effort to avoid early piracy.”

B) The Spore (EA) controversy was quite prominent earlier and Spore still remains the most pirated game in the history of piracy (gaming). Spore witnessed legal purchasers of the product using pirated patches to make their games work. The problem was – quite simply – in the DRM. Spore by EA used the SecuROM Digital Rights Management system.

The Spore DRM allowed one account and like Mass Effect (Also published by EA – developed by Bioware) allowed limited installs and activation. So that if you have a laptop and a pc and wanted to play the game on both you would require two copies (rather two licenses) to play the game. On top of that the game can be installed only thrice on any system. Another problem would be the content control by Amazon which removed Spore-related negative forum posts (the posts were back after public protests with amazon citing website glitches and maintenance). Some restrictions on Mass Effect were removed consequently.

C) Starforce 3.0 deployed on Splinter Cell : Chaos Theory was one of the longest games which was not cracked for over 400 days. It was also controversial in that the system manipulation resulted in security issues for the customers who brought the game. For some user responses and a few technical details refer the Neoseeker Forums. This also means that the original version of the game induced system instability as much as pirated and unsafe cracks and patches.

D) Instabilily, High Resource Consumption, Rootkits, and “sneaky software” are some major problems with Digital Content and is not limited to games alone. Sony’s Mediamax and XCP copy protection installs softwares on the users systems without any warning or notification and as such emulates a lot of common rootkit activity in cloaking itself. Soon after a few researchers exposed the Sony Rootkit, security and antivirus softwares filtered these systems. Three separate class action suits were filed against Sony which were represented by the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation).

How DRMs are restrictive to legal gaming – examining select cases

A) Atari’s Chronicles of Riddick

As explored earlier, Ataris system uses the TAGES protection method limiting installs, quite a few player responses were in the negative. One such response is as follows

“Unfortunately publishers still don’t understand that legitimate customers hate being treated like criminals and still force installation limits down our throats. It’s one thing to require the DVD in the drive or even an initial online activation, but to say I can only install this on 3 computers, well that’s a little too much. I have the money to upgrade my hardware every 8 months, and I do, so why in 2 years should I have to call a customer service rep and hope he/she believes me when I say I need a new key? Another customer lost Atari, well played.”

J. Hesselink Atari User

Comments such as those by Hesselink are common in almost all the forums that discuss DRMs, most DRMs are so restrictive that pirated patches are preffered even by legal users.

B) Ubisofts Always Online DRM – and Circumventions.

Ubisoft recently declared DRM scheme whereby players had to be constantly online (the game phones home) and not just during activation. One major problem with the ‘Always Online’ DRM is that a minor connection failure could mean lost saved games even in single player modes. Thus by introducing these forms of DRMs attempts are being made to make even offline Role Playing Games into Online Games. A few steps away from being an MMORPG or rather just an MMOG without the massive element.

Assassins Creed 2 uses the Always Online DRM and any connection errors results in losing all saved progress from the last autosave. The Controversy surrounding the Ubisoft DRM is that even legal owners of the game cannot play the game because of DDOS attacks and server downtime. The problem escalated to a situation where pirated patches were able to sign on to the Ubisoft server while legal gamers were left high and dry. Ubisoft handed out free DLCs and Prince of Persia editions to affected users.

Here are a few User responses to Ubisofts new DRM and the call for protests

Submitted by nightwng2000 – February 22, 2010 at 12:00 pm -0500

Except that that is exactly what Ubisoft, and DRM in general, is leading even legal owners to do. Even people who have legally purchased such games are resorted to Piracy tactics (as opposed to piracy acts) to be able to play the game which they have legally purchased. This, in fact, ends up leaving a DEMAND for hackers and crackers, rather than leading the general game community to ostricize and condemn them. It’s not far off from Industry types in book publishing retaliating against even fan fiction writers in an effort to protect their Copyright and Intellectual Proptery. And not far off from those who have actually opposed even mechanical reading devices from translating text to speech.  Such acts are driving even innocent individuals to react similar to illegal individuals, even if, really, their actions do nothing more than provide them with access to the product or allow seperate expansion of the product without actually harming the original product or publisher/creators.

Nightwng2000

NW2K Software

Ubisoft in an interview clears some of the misconceptions and reiterates the always online functionality as a core component to their future games and releases. Read more in an article.

C) DDOS Attacks – clearing some myths.

DDOS attacks or Denial of Service attacks have been present since the inception of the internet and is nothing new. They are quite common on almost any online server and are largely used against small and medium business in aggressive attacks for extortion, competition, and so forth most of the attacks fall outside of legislation. Denial of Service attacks are also quite common on gaming servers such as those of Ubisoft, Blizzard, and Sony to name a few. In some instances particular game releases have faced (most probably by chance or luck) coincided and concentrated attacks which compromise the entire service.

It is quite incidental that the massive DDOS attacks that took down the Ubisoft servers were simultaneous considering the frequency and number of DDOS attacks in general. It does not seem to be a organized and planned attack (and even if so was perhaps limited to a few small groups) the massive DDOS attacks faced that day would most likely have been just incidental.

The Case against DRMs and impact on Legal Gaming

A lot of recent and current discourses on DRMs point towards DRMs being evil. There is a clear moral standpoint that mosts artists do not generate sufficient revenues out of their work, largely due to piracy. Thus the problem should ideally not be the DRMs themselves which are just tools rather the means and ways in which these DRMs are deployed, methods which often restrict legal ownership over that product and the right to back up and use the product as required.

One main issue is the question of ownership after purchase such that debates have been central in Fair use and storage. Ironically the DRM used by Apple to license its music is called Fairplay. Chris Boyd a researcher at Sunbelt focuses on the portability of games, restrictive DRMs have become so complex that only pirates can bypass and play them.

Its fairly established that the DRM softwares (some of the Always Online variants), collect playthrough data, which are simultaneously uploaded on the online profiles as the game progresses. Not that there is a problem with the profiling itself, only options of the users sharing of that data with the service provider is not always present. The user is most often not even aware that playthrough data is collected.

The EA privacy policy states that they can collect personal information and statistics as well as have access to your playthrough content (even user generated), for purposes of ranking, statistical estimation and others. Take a look at the EA’s TOS and privacy policy here. And an excerpt from section 5

EA uses personal and non-personal information, both individually and combined together, to better understand the behavior and preferences of our customers, to troubleshoot technical problems, to enforce our Terms of Service, to ensure proper functioning of our products and services as well as to help improve them. In addition, we combine non-personal information with personal information, such as an email address, to tailor our offerings, web pages or game play experience to your preferences or interests.

The DRM systems would be one way for developers and publishers to reach out to the community, and the delivery systems in place that do not affect gaming, and the playthrough experiences are the ones that should be deployed and favoured. Valve does this when they respond with this comment :

EA only handles distribution for the physical product, and Valve thinks most DRM is just dumb. The goal should be to create greater value for customers through service value (make it easy for me to play my games whenever and wherever I want to), not by decreasing the value of a product (maybe I’ll be able to play my game and maybe I won’t) … We really really discourage other developers and publishers from using the broken DRM offerings, and in general there is a groundswell to abandon those approaches.

Gabe Newell Director, Valve

Valve’s Newel puts DRMs in gaming into perspective, the long standing EA Boycott over the Spore incident is still active in some sections, and similar boycotting of Ubisoft’s products have also been quite prominent as a measure against their regressive DRM systems. This is interesting to note since most avid fans that purchase games do so to support their favorite titles and the DRM mechanisms becoming so restrictive results in the tensions between this fragile relationship and support. Some publishers such as Valve use DRMs quite differently and believe that the product has an intrinsic value that users are willing to pay for it and their steam releases as well as hardcopy releases showcase this commitment. Their own products witnessed a price negotiation until an optimal price was fixed which created an atmosphere for higher sales.

Proposed DRMs

US Patent Office for Application Number 11678137 lists a DRM concept that utilizes an Internal Intelligence (not too clear on what this would be and what it does – an AI that just protects the copy?) that is unique to each copy created when purchased. A pirate cracking the code, would then theoretically be applicable for only that copy and the time period specified by the internal intelligence. The concept incorporates limited installs bound by time frames and install numbers, user activity monitoring (as in attempts to circumvent, or attempts to that effect) and control over the product itself such that backing up is not an option. This becomes an implementation problem when looking at digital releases such as D2D and Steam (valves views on [irresponsible and unnecessary] DRM are quite clear and quoted earlier).

Possibilities for mass scale distribution for this sort of a DRMs would be complex considering the growing market share of digital releases, and if this version is compiled accordingly that still leaves the privacy issue of the user. Such a DRM would have tremendous surveillance and data mining capabilities and systems. Thankfully internal intelligence does not exist yet and hopefully will remain so for some time to come.

Conclusion

DRMs are in the end bad for the legal user who pays for the products, they are exposed to rootkits, viruses, and instability. Most users end up “paying and praying” that the game would work. In some cases such as Spore, Mass Effect, Chronicles of Riddick, and many others the complex and often unsustainable DRM mechanisms have only increased piracy with legal users shifting to pirated patches to make their games run where legal versions crashed or created unsustainable requirements on the user end. There was a minor incident when Ubisoft’s DRM created major glitches in Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (the Direct 2 Drive Digital Release) in an upgrade (Officially Released Patch by Ubisoft) which required the DRM CD check (the CD which was obviously not there being a D2D Digital Release). A consequent patch released by Ubisoft was a NO-CD version released by the Reloaded group as a circumvention to the original game. A very prominent and capable piracy group, their insignia was found in snapshots of the game.exe file opened with a hex editor (which unfortunately the Ubisoft group forgot to remove while pirating from a pirate group). Reverse engineering from a reverse engineered hack. Snapshot links here.

For more info – Please Follow The Gaming and Gold Blog. For more details on TPMs in the Indian Copyright Act Amendment – follow The IPR Blog.

With critical inputs from Sujith Prathap.

Introduction

In this post, Dragon Age: Origins (DA: O) is examined for its immersive narrative architecture and how in creating immersive narratives whole environments are designed to appeal to residual, experiential, and (possibly) baser narratives. Residual and experiential narratives are the remnants of human engagement with certain prior narratives which are appropriated into the mental models that dictate how human responses are generated but that is not the scope of examination here. The engagement with the narratives in the game world is often a re-engagement with the residual experiential forms. These forms exist and operate in a largely semantic form/field, in which there is constant renegotiation and the appropriation of these narratives. Residual and experiential narratives provide for a higher accessibility to a certain area. RPG games will be more accessible to those who have played earlier RPGs or better to those who have engaged with the various narratives surrounding the world of the Lord of Rings, either in the written form of the novel, or through the medium of film or better to the various interactive mediums that are built around this world. ‘Dungeons and Dragons’ has been accredited with setting new benchmarks for the traditional RPG domain with good reason. The new release by Bioware (an ‘AAA developer’) aspires to these experiential and residual narratives through the constructions of Ferelden and the Archdemon. The character generation and construction although not varied racially, has class and gender choices that affect the way in which the structure of the game reacts to the varied choices, often morally coloured, of the player. The game structures are immersive, and respond and react to the choices made by the player. Here the argument is made that the structure inherently forces a masculine perspective on the player regardless of gender choices made in character creation/generation. Here perhaps a quote from ‘The Witcher’ – a game developed and released by ATARI, which has a collaborative partner in Bioware – would be most appropriate.

“Representing the pinnacle of storytelling in role-playing games, The Witcher shatters the line between good and evil in a world where moral ambiguity reigns.”

As seen above the question is no longer about the narrative architecture’s deployment rather on the semantic structures created around character development and growth. Although ‘The Witcher’ is not examined here for its moral ambiguity, similar structures in storytelling can be noticed in DA:O, and deriving out of that a few specific instances of sexual archetypes are examined. These archetypes are present virtually in the created/constructed environments which the players engage with as well as in the real world (as in the industry). The constructions of these archetypes are not so much the problem as the audience which receives, imagines, and reconstructs (reiterates?) these structures.

What is DA: O?

DA: O is a role-playing fantasy game mimicking the traditional RPG narrative style founded by Dungeons and Dragons. The game offers players the opportunity to select class, character, race, and gender choices, which then changes the way the game structure responds to the player’s playthrough experience. All possibilities and permutations put the total number to a maximum of 24 permutations including gender choices. Each playthrough would approximately be 60-100 hours depending on the comprehensiveness of the playthrough, i.e., if the player chooses to explore only the main quest-line, the length of the playthrough is substantially shorter than if each sub-quests are taken up. The game is played out in the world of Ferelden which is affected by ‘the Blight’ and it falls to the ‘Gray Wardens‘ to defeat the ‘Archdemon‘ and end the Blight on the land. Notice that the terminologies and its usages are similar to Robert Jordan’s usage in his work. One of the first appeals to other narrative discourses appears right in the beginning.

The narrative architecture makes an appeal to other residual narratives encountered through fantasy literature, movies, and narratives through other mediums and is based on the works of J. R. R. Tolkein and Robert Jordan. The architecture is constructed around these narratives in an attempt to create immersivity through the narrative technique. The basic designs of Ferelden, the world in which these narratives are placed, are the combined product of some cultural, religious, and societal representations found in the real world. There is an amalgamation of real world socio-cultural and even religious products to an extent that it is standardized to appeal to a varied audience.

These spaces are rife with an inherent religious and gender stereotype seen built throughout the game narrative. The attempt of the designers, in creating virtual worlds as stereotyped products created to appeal to the masses is an interesting space, largely since such is observed and studied by theoreticians such as Adorno in other mediums and spaces in the culture industry.

An exploration of the player characters choices and the supporting characters of the game and their influence on the game narrative structure is examined to bring out the masculine positions and perspectives imposed on the player position regardless (often, not always) of the player choice. This is examined further while examining a few of the characters in the game. The idea of catering to women gamers may be a market audience driven concept than just concern for gender parity.

This again is a problematic construction, since many of the binaries have feminine archetypal connotations associated with the weaker construction; some of these binaries are brought out in this work discussing sexual archetypes and gender constructions.

A few of these constructions have been used to do a reading of select characters in the game DA: O. One main construction which is prevalent in the industry (many industry and market reports have facts and data that focus on the space and function that women have in this industry) is the notion that these spaces are reconfigured and designed ‘for women’ as users and consumers again categorized as a casual gamer. The associated reports can be found here, the first is a directory of games and game worlds specific for women.

Please note the constructions of casual games and targeted audiences visible in the very naming of the games themselves. The second is the articulation of women subjects in these spaces, and is tackled by this article in Womengamers.com which addresses the problematic in the industry and if and how women participate in these structures.

Therefore, (I argue that) the spaces that are configured here are in the domain of the artists ‘gaze’. The designer and the artist are no longer disparate entities involved in the representation of these spaces but also on how the body is configured and designed. The control inherently removes the subjectivity within these spaces. The terms ‘removal of subjectivity’ from the body is emphasized rather than objectification of the body for the reason that it focuses on the process and not the act, thus in a Stellarc(ian) notion the body becomes the location and site of design.  The process is not altogether dissimilar from what Julian Dibbell talks about in the article “A Rape in Cyberspace, or How an Evil Clown, a Haitian Trickster Spirit, Two Wizards, and a Cast of Dozens Turned a Database into a Society”. Objectification in these spaces exists with layers and striations that are not altogether specifically clear to locate, map, or place. Objectification is not just an act, in these spaces, of removing subjectivity, but also of creating (aesthetically) the body and/or redesigning the body. Therefore, to reiterate again the body not as an ‘object of desire’ per se but an ‘object of design’ as Stelarc very clearly states in an essay published in virtual futures.

Returning to DA: O, there is considerable space created for a woman gamer to act and participate in the world of Ferelden (the nation where events of this game take place). But the position the character plays from remains dominantly masculine. This statement can be justified by the gaze that penetrates this world and the player is forced to participate in that process of observation regardless of choice. In the end it is relevant to note that these spaces and bodies are designed and thus are inflected by the views of the designer who acts as the artist. As mentioned earlier the artists gaze is imposed on the player who then views the world through the designer’s eyes. One important note to make is that every element in a virtual world is created and placed for a specific reason, either to create an effect or to lead/navigate the player position. The ambient sounds that are created are placed there for a similar reason. The player position then, regardless of gender choices, is arguably masculine. This masculine position is not something inherent only to this offline game but also prominent in most games and many virtual spaces. The position then regardless of choice forces a masculine gaze on the player (regardless of the players or characters gender choices) who observes the world of Ferelden.

One of the main problems associated with gaming cultures all over the world are the stereotypes spread not only within gaming spaces but also outside of these spaces. One good example of such a misogynist expression is the geekscribe website; the notion that women gamers have more sex is anecdotal. A cursory examination of their article seems to place sexual activity in the real world and seems not to be hinting at virtual or cybersex. The very construction is rife with othering [note: although using the self-other binary is problematic, it is appropriate that such a discourse is present when addressing or reading these positions] women, firstly by classification and secondly by employing archetypes that further certain stereotypes. Gaming is constructed as a predominantly male bastion and the inclusion of women in this space is not acknowledged let alone designed for as a viable market audience.

This is not to mention that studies do not exist that confirm women participation in gaming. Any study would casually place all women as ‘naturally’ casual. There are particular stages where these concepts thrive and they are examined below.

Supporting Characters in DA: O

Examining the supporting characters of DA: O is one approach to analyze the synthetic world and examine the construction in these spaces. DA: O  is a ground breaking game, largely because it allows women gamers a space of their own. Playing a woman character has never been as comprehensively structured as in DA: O. Two arguments can be made here either favouring the developer that gives women a space to play or critiquing the industry and the space itself that remains a dominantly male bastion and reinforces the othering  of women (this can be observed in this game where the position the player plays from is still dominantly male). Ferelden as a game world has very little changes depending on gender. The character generation screen itself makes it clear that game play is not gender dependent, in fact gender has very little to do with actual game play other than few changes in the playthrough, such as becoming the queen of Ferelden. Here I intend to show the gender stereotypes constructed within Dragon Age Origins, that regardless of so called gender parity creates an atmosphere not conducive to women gamers. In the following sections a reading of select characters is done and the archetypes that inflect their creation examined.

Morrigan- The Witch of the Wilds

Morrigan is a main character in the DA: O narrative along with companion character Alistair – Gray Warden. Encountered first on the quest to retrieve the Gray Warden treaties and then again after being rescued from the Tower of Ishall by Flemeth. The construction of Flemeth the powerful mage and her daughter Morrigan is interesting. Flemeth is portrayed as an immortal ‘Mage of Legend’ who has many daughters and through ‘dark rituals’ becomes her daughters to regain her beauty and body lost to age.

Morrigan in the game is one of the more accessible characters for romance options. This can be substantiated in the detailed dialogue options that the player has with Morrigan. The construction of Morrigan as a Witch of the Wild implies a higher sexual activity even in the ‘isolation of the wilds’ which comes up many times in NPC conversations (often during exploration some of the NPCs in the party engage in conversations between them, this adds to the detailed characterisations of the NPC characters. The connotations of being a ‘witch’ is also associated with notions of sexuality and sexual activity which is reinforced again with the mythic stories that support Flemeth’s narrative. Flemeth on the second encounter details her story and more details are added by Morrigan post this dialogue, but only if this dialogue with Flemeth has taken place first.

“[Flemeth] kept Morrigan separate from the nearby villagers and because of this, Morrigan has had limited interaction with other humans, though her ability to shape shift meant that she has often found solace in the company of animals.”

Dragon Age Wiki

Morrigan’s and Flemeth’s sexuality is built into the ‘Witch of the Wilds’ characterization and is inherent to this construction. The exploits of Flemeth is narrated by both Alistair and Morrigan in slightly different versions but both narrations place Flemeth as an ‘apostate mage’ of great beauty over whom men (in an earlier age) fought battles. The characterization of Flemeth as a powerful mage consorting with a demon is similar to other constructions within this game. Similar constructions shift the agency of the subject in a subtle manner to the viewer, or to the player who plays the game. This shift of agency is quite similar to the shift noticed in the poem by Robert Herrick – ‘Delight in Disorder’, where the artist removes subjectivity from the body of the woman by dissecting it through an examination of her clothing. (note that the poem is not part of the game but is used as an example of the perspectives an artist may use in depicting the body. The medium remains different but not the politics that create and shift gendered subjectivities.

Is this case so different? The reader or gamer is put into the ‘male’ position from which the narrative continues, even if the gender of the player character is female there is very little difference to the experience of the overall playthrough. The position remains inevitably male since the character is forced to observe and play out the game from an often male perspective. Dialogue options are similar in either gender playthrough and gender abuse is often reiterated in the options provided for the player. The inclusion of such options is debatable. The choice to abuse other characters and discriminate based on their gender and racial selections are justified as an element that allows diverse characterization options even at the risk of furthering and reinforcing real world stereotypes. The moral choice does provide for a more engaging and immersive environment in terms of narrative but at the cost of reiterating violent gender stereotypes. The gameplay is enhanced with the inclusion of the moral choice dilemma but at the cost of perpetuating real world violence. What is also interesting is that Stelarc in Cyberotics, Technology and Post-human Pragmatism talks about the body no longer being the site of the social and shifting towards being ‘monitored and modified’. The body then is removed from its agency in a similar manner that Stelarc implies. The removal of subjectivity although does not mean an objectification of the body rather space is created for the design and redesign of the body in ways that would engender the body politic.

Flemeth’s immortality and power is explained by Morrigan as the result of the symbiotic relationship with a demon (a possession leads to an abomination, in other cases in the larger storyline). Flemeth’s focus on ‘power over all else’ comes up frequently through codex entries and dialogue options through Morrigan. Flemeth’s access to power and its dissemination to Morrigan are through the demon who shares the symbiotic relationship with Flemeth. Demons are malicious spirits in the Fade who attempt to break through into the mortal world, most often through possession of souls and then unleash violence, death, and destruction. The main narrative in Ferelden is to combat Darkspawn originally from the Black City in the Fade which is a corruption of the Golden City of the Maker (the narrative develops cracks at this point, Darkspawn are the corruptions from the fade but the demons/spirits of the fade have no contact with the Darkspawn ‘taint’). Flemeth’s symbiotic relationship with a demon implies all sorts of connotations which are dominant notions associated with witchcraft in Christian mysticism. The notions of witchcraft and the sexuality associated with witchcraft are inherent to Ferelden.

The Chantry of Andraste and the ‘Chant of Light‘ becomes part of the dominant religious structure of Ferelden. The chantry reinforces a religious order in Ferelden along with the Templars who become the military fighting force of the Chantry. What is relevant to note here is the claim to residual narratives that Henry Jenkins makes an argument for in Game Design as Narrative Architecture.

Andraste (The Prophet)

Her namesake is that of a Celtic war goddess but her storyline is more in common with Joan of Arc, the liberation of slaves, the revolt of minorities, and a personal connection to god (Maker in Ferelden) are events common in Jewish religious mysticism. In this manner religion and society in Ferelden is derived out of real events in world history, some of the lines in the ‘Chant of Light’ (as recited outside the chantry in the city of Denerim), has an allegory of verses in the Quran. Such as “he who saves one life, saves the whole world.” There is a strong claim to the residual narrative experiences of gamers through such constructions of religion and society. What is also problematic is the creation of religion and society as a standardised/generalised consumable product. Adorno’s ‘Culture Industry-Enlightenment as Mass Deception’  a part of this chapter can be found here and can be imported to read into this space where a uniformity is forced to cater to the supposed needs of the masses.

This uniformity has two effects: it satisfies certain needs partially but never completely and in the act of uniform consumption the masses are standardized.

Andraste also serves as a feminine archetype of the virgin martyr which resonates with the experiential narrative of Joan of Arc. Andraste also portrays the eternal feminine notion being worshiped as the prophet of the maker and the Maker’s wife (the maker in Ferelden stands for god/creator). In some manner Leliana serves the Archetype of the penitent whore and reverberates with conceptions of Mary Magdalene. Read more on the various feminine archetypes here.

The Chantry (of Andraste)

The dominant religion in Ferelden is the Chantry, a sisterhood of priests (except in the village of Haven on the quest for the Urn of Sacred Ashes). The construction of the chantry and the chant of light is an amalgamation of various real world religious traditions and thus attract residual narratives of various multiple religions by appealing to the morality (perhaps religious morality) espoused by most religions. The residual experiential narratives provide for better accessibility to the religion in Ferelden in terms of identification and role-play. The breakaways in the form of the Dragon Cult (encountered in the aforementioned quest) form an alternate route to the established religious structure available to the player.

Leliana

Leliana is the minor character recruited in Lothering. Unlike the other ‘sisters’ of the Chantry, Leliana is a rouge and bard of the warrior class and offers to join the party at Lothering (the first village after the battle at Ostagar) . As the game progresses, provided Leliana is included in the active party, more of her personal history is divulged through a set of dialogue options available and as and when approval ratings for the character cross a certain limit new dialogue options open up. The fact that she is an Orlesian Bard is conflicting with the image first constructed as a chantry sister, for an Orlesian Bard is a spy as well as paramour for Orlesian royalty. Thus, the feminine archetype of the penitent whore who repents her past actions and turns towards god (Maker in Ferelden) for absolution is noticed in this game. The god/maker then saves and delivers the woman from herself and establishes a strong but subtle patriarchy in the games internalised religious narrative. The stereotypes employed here are not new constructions but archetypes such as that of the ‘Penitent Whore’ and the ‘Virgin Martyr’.

Queen Anora

Queen Anora is the Slain King Cailin’s wife and daughter to the treacherous Teryn Loghain who abandons the war at Ostagar. The narrative is built around these two figures playing a central role in the storyline. On the narrative technique of the ‘origins’ stories leading up to Ostagar; please refer the primary probability stew by Adarel. Very little is present in terms of narrative discourse for this character except for the two different feminine constructions encountered during gameplay. The first construction is centred at constructing Anora as weak of heart, unable in action, and a captive of the Arl of Denerim in his estate. The player character is then faced with the option of rescuing her from there, depending on later gameplay choices and if Anora is crowned queen (depends on the players gameplay choices) then the construction shifts completely to the masculine warrior archetype. The final battle speeches confirm this shift to a warrior queen archetype. Is this then an access to power? The queen who requires the warden (the player character) to rescue her gains subjectivity to regain her throne and grant boons to the warden?

Women Gamers and the Gaming Industry

Do women play games? The existence of questions such as these do not necessarily imply a lack of participation on the part of women in these spaces, rather participation is limited, forced, often inhibited by predominantly patriarchal conceptualizations and archetypes that operate in these spaces. How are these different from other archetypes in the ‘real world’? They are quite similar to the effect that they are often imported and in some cases employed, redistributed and re-employed between virtual and real spaces. This role extends to both ends of the spectrum as creators or developers and as users or consumers. The archetypes are imposed in the real world spaces where gamers congregate, redesigned in the immersive worlds that they create and redistributed through the products that target this segment. This would be a very effective vicious cycle of how notions and pre conceptions are created at the stages of conception, viewed through the playthrough and enacted in the real world. This classification has extended to women gamers being classified as casual gamers. The construction is not again one borne out of inclusive tendencies rather by market capitalization which demanded their inclusion into revenue generation models for games deployed on various platforms. Current discourses revolves around ‘getting the nannies’ into the game, statistics presented at the IGDS conference in Bangalore recently placed a high income group of above 45 years of age spending the highest amount on social gaming largely as gifts to loved ones/relatives who are on the same platform. Even market and industry oriented discourses place women in a position that removes subjectivity and agency from the real woman and the designed woman in the virtual world.

The relevant question here is: why are women gamers categorized as ‘casual gamers’? Reuters archives has many articles on gamers generically being unhealthy and depressed as well as women gamers being ‘casual gamers’ and concludes with reports that women gamers are more prone to depression and obesity if invested in gaming. This is extremely problematic and needs to be questioned and criticized for the archetypes that are being reinforced by supposedly knowledgeable news service providers. One particular archetype of a woman playing games is the traditionally geeky female gamer who is unattractive, obese, depressed and often masculine in structure. Any other woman who remotely happens to be attractive will be at the receiving end of enough and more inappropriate remarks from gamers. One such is illustrated in the comments of the article posted above. Discussed there is the sexualization of Jade Raymond (who worked on the Assassins Creed team). If a woman working in the gaming industry is remotely attractive, she finds herself at the receiving end of the male gaze and inappropriate unsolicited attention. To this effect the Geekscribe website has been discussed earlier where similar stereotypes and sexual archetypes are discussed.

The new move/shift towards creating character possibilities for gender choices is not relatively new but the game environment and structure responding accordingly should have more focus (which is very weak if present). As such a game structure most often, if not always, has a strong position that reacts and acts to a dominantly male position and here the reference is not to sexual or violent themes rather the position is inherently masculine. The player character is designed most often in a masculine perspective and irrespective (most often) of player choices the perspective remains masculine. The design forces the character to observe and thus remove subjectivity from a female NPCs body which is what the case is even in DA: O irrespective of a woman gamer’s choice, is forced into playing a position that is undoubtedly masculine. The masculinisation is inherent to the structure and does not change irrespective of the gender choices. Marketing gurus who have jumped into the social media bandwagon urge developers to create games sensitive to a woman’s ‘needs’. Obviously (more often than not) a male coder decides what those needs are as they are coded into the structure. Games and products targeting a market such as this would have low violence, low puzzle solving elements (if any), and are filled with ‘home’ oriented gameplay mechanisms. Arguably these designs are based on the patriarchal notions and constructions of feminine positions. Most developers argue that more sales and lead generation happen through sites that have these constructions as they are women friendly. One example would be Missbimbo.com a site which is largely targeted towards children (detailed market and audience statistics are not available). As a part of her upcoming report Dr. Papadopoulos has done extensive research on the sexualisation of children based on videogames, teen magazines, and sexualised content that normalises adults as well as children into accepting violent and sexual themes as part of daily life. The latter concept is interesting since it’s an industry wide movement across multiple mediums such as print, television, and naturally videogames. ‘Bigger and better’ is a concept adopted by most developers and videogame companies across generic barriers, but what does this translate to? From a reading across genres the investment is not plainly in graphics and technology but also in thematic shifts.

The focus on higher sexual and violent content is perceived as a way forward for gaming. Since the game industry is gearing towards creating games for a larger (read older and richer) population (ESA along with other regulatory bodies place the age of an average gamer at 35), there is an extended emphasis on themes of violence and sex and no longer do companies shy away from games that fall under the adult ratings banner (moderate sexual and violent content 17+ is an ESRB rating that can be found on many games). Many prominent debates can be found on the morality decisions that inform purchases in these spaces. To this effect there are debates that allow for a moral highpoint for violence and not in sexual content (if the numbers of participants engaging in these debates are taken into account). Some responses go as far as making violence more acceptable than sexual content. The choices that inform most videogames purchase is on the sexual and violent content and the right balance of both if such a thing exists. The desensitization of children to sexual content and the violence within video games and how among other mediums videogames also serve as one such medium is studied by Dr. Linda Papadopoulos.

Immersive environments are unfortunately not inclusive environments. Much still needs to be done before the gaming industry recognizes that this space needs to be more inclusive.

Bibliography

1. Christian Mcrea. Dismembers of the Audience: The Expulsive, Explosive Force of Bodies in Games.
2. Elizabeth Behm-Morawitz. and Dana Mastro. The Effects of the Sexualization of Female Video Game Characters on Gender Stereotyping and Female Self-Concept. Vol 61, Springer Netherlands. Dec, 2009.
3. Kelly L Ross. Gender Stereotypes and Sexual Archetypes

T.L. Taylor has written works such as Play Between Worlds: Exploring Online Game Cultures. Her work revolves around questions of ownership of game space, gaming communities, and cultures. Her work on the Uru Diaspora (Play Between Worlds: Chapter II) is interesting since questions of diasporic experiences in these communities are explored. The following is a short review of her article titled ‘Whose game is this anyway? Negotiating corporate ownership in Virtual Worlds.’ This article provides a brief view into the game space and questions of ownership, trade (both internal and external) as well as the notions of game time versus investment of real money via virtual currencies. The flow is not so easy to locate as Taylor does in her article. The flow has many situational problems such as the space and location of this activity (which is gold farming) becomes problematic to locate to tie up with real economies. Virtual economies exist in a controlled space (as Castronova would argue) but this space exists outside of the real world (earth in Castronova’s terms) control and the game developers become the De Facto governments of this space. Before continuing with Taylors work perhaps a short digression is in order to examine the spaces for their systems. The former system is a not found largely since the control will be in the hands (collective or individual) of the players. Such systems exist only on small scale servers (1000–20000 players is smaller compared to the millions deployed over social games and retail servers).

There are two possible capacities in which this could materialize either as enablers (that enable the process of government through structures deployed in the game world) or as arbitrary rulers (mostly as administrative staff who will regulate the governance systems and policies of interactions) note that forms of trade are dependent on the technologies that mediate social interaction and therefore how well a game culture specific to a virtual world develop and grow depends entirely on the types of communication systems are deployed on that virtual space. The former system is a not found largely since the control will be in the hands (collective or individual) of the players. The Magna Carta of Virtual and Gaming worlds known as the document which almost every player group, derives from or contributes to in some manner discusses the arbritary powers of the in-world/in-game systems of governance and their undue abuse of power due to greater access. This conceptualizes Avatar rights in a fashion that would give equal opportunities to all players regardless of their positions within game worlds. This document also locates the requirement to impose effective governing standards and systems that would mediate undue gains and transactions dependent on powerful positions related to governance. Discussions have been effectuated on the Entropia servers with a modified version of Avatar Rights as advocated by Raph Koster, although there has been considerable growth and exposure of these rights in the ways in which it has been adopted (by various groups on second life) and on multiple other self-styled liberation organizations such as the SLLO (Second Life Liberation Organization) among many other democratic and non democratic structures tat impose a certain amount of self governance regardless of the imposed systems of governance by the corporate owner i. e. Lindenlabs.

There has been discussion on community informatics but it has been extremely problematic, since there are real world perspectives that always come into play. The effectiveness of a community informatics program depends on the real world impact or negotiation that a virtual community has and this is one of the most problematic limiting perspectives. The consequence of this is that any relational aspect of the real-virtual space cannot be negotiated without examining the so called impact of the virtual community. In fact this stereotype extends to the fact that virtual communities that do not have real world significance or presence are often, if not always, granted the space and significance that one with a real world impact has. The protests held on Hard Alley in Second life mean very little in the real world and for this reason protests such as these find little if any publicity outside of these forums. There are such similar protests and movements that exists worldwide only in the virtual world with numbers at times more than what would be seen in the real world. Are we to ignore these and give more attention to systems that are connected to real world processes? And thus transact in attention in entirely different means?

The liberation armies across many virtual worlds are trying to set up systems of governance that can then be more proactive and inclusive rather than by developer controls particularly in spaces that are owned and operated largely by users. This is where Taylor plays a really important role. The control of these spaces are not just matters of property and ownership linked with monetary gains and investments but also of identity and imagining the self. To some extent community informatics addresses these questions of self within such spaces but most examinations are essentially capitalist and bourgeois. Taylors examination focuses on labor and production and would ideally place the ownership systems in a way where multinational corporations and real world government policies facilitate a system whereby the control of these spaces are within the ambit of the capitalist superstructure that performs well in this space. The players who have ownership will only participate or are already participating as the comprador class and the control of the world would inevitably fall into another paradigm of control. Virtual spaces cannot by nature have communal concepts of ownership and any such concepts that arise do not have participation from the players to be sustainable models. The Star Wars Combine was an effort into an academic and as well as community space where the concepts of capitalist ownership are replaced if not removed. The following text is taken from their about page (accessed 22/02/2010)

The Combine is about Star Wars. The Combine is developed by Star Wars fans, for Star Wars fans. The purpose is to provide a Star Wars universe where fans may dream.

The Star Wars Combine is a free game. Free for the end-users, free for the players, but this does not mean the Combine does not have to face financial charges. There are costs associated to such a project: financial costs as well as time investments. The combine as a gaming platform stands out, they do require financial assistance for running but their systems of governance are oriented towards a community rather than just a top down perspective. Arguably some capitalist structures will prevail even in these spaces.

The concept that labor spent in the virtual world is as important as labor in the real world is worth noting. To this effect Taylor has similar ideas to those of Castronova and Consalvo. That labor generates revenue in the virtual world and is as important as the labor that goes into the real world and the virtual economy may influence real economies, simply because of the capital investment in these spaces. Taylor does not argue for the shifting of economic activities and processes to the virtual world, rather she addresses questions of ownership or authorship of users and the limiting constraints imposed by the developers over this space. This is where Castronova and Taylor differ, the former argues for the relationship with the real world economies whereas the latter addresses questions of ownership in this space (Castronova strictly uses the earth/synthetic binary rather than the real/virtual binary to define this space. This usage is particularly prominent among his works such as Exodus to the virtual World and a more recent publication Synthetic Worlds). User generated communities and spaces are rife with creativity which is, more often than not, constrained by developers and worse appropriated by the game world itself (I foreground this area as problematic largely because the developer makes profit from such an appropriation and it’s very rare instance that a user gets credit for that work, let alone revenues generated from this area). The best example is the liberal doling out of Cease and Desist orders by multinational corporations on the use of their registered trademarks/symbols as appropriately noted by Taylor.

One noticeable problem in Taylors article is a move towards generic classification, is that the most popular virtual environments are, among others, MMORPGs (Massively multiplayer online role playing games), but not all virtual environments are MMORPGs. T. L. Taylor, Edward Castronova, and even Mia Consalvo to a small extent do not give sufficient focus to this crucial fact. This is not to suggest that their studies are flawed by their generous focus on MMORPGs. Most of their works set new standards to game studies as an academic field of study. Another one would be the classification of gaming communities as subcultures and such a usage becomes a synecdoche. A subculture needs commonalities among its members; things such as time spent together, common fashion, music, and even fan content (I use the term content because ‘fan fiction’ is inappropriate in this context and ‘mods’ are restrictive). Mia Consalvo points out the construction of subcultures and how the usage and the problems arising out of generically classifying all gaming spaces as a subculture. Taylor also mentions subculture The experiences and cultural products/commonalities are too varied to form a cohesive single unit. An Everquest (EQ) community may be called a subculture, but a World of Warcraft (WoW) community would have very few commonalities and a second life community almost none. Difference can be noted in terms of Genre preferences, play-styles, character creation (if it’s an RPG the term used is character generation and some games have fan additions that allow third party character generators to be used, although such incorporations are now extremely uncommon), and community interaction in terms of the alone-together phenomenon. These differences would crack notions of a common gaming subculture. It is then important to note the multiplicity of not just gaming cultures but also socio-economic and political manifestations of the same. How gaming cultures impact the real world economies, and how the community (the gaming community in its entirety or a part) sets up its own transaction and interactions mechanisms that may then spill over into the real world. This essentially forms a part if not the larger part of gaming systems and community systems in the real world that form the secondary market.

Taylors comparisons of freeware MUDs and commercialized gaming spaces owned by conglomerates such as Sony and Microsoft (‘Everquest’ and ‘Asherons Call’ respectively) is problematic largely because non-commercial freeware spaces do exist in some or the other form. Star Wars Combine is a good example of this community driven development space. Some attempts at research and academic study have also been made by the community developers. The survival of these (freeware) clients as against the major conglomerates such as Microsoft and Sony depends on the marketing ability and the design teams that are backed by massive capital investments. The commercialization of these spaces is closely linked with the popularity enjoyed by these spaces. Commercialization should also be linked to the desire in the player/gamer community perform better, such that they are noticed. This commercialization facilitates the process of creating attention. Although Taylor may argue otherwise, ‘attention’ plays a crucial role in the processes facilitating commercialization of these spaces. My attempt is to point out that a certain amount of commercialization is inherent to these computer-mediated gaming spaces. The role that attention plays in these spaces to facilitate interaction and transfers are the requirement that needs more examination. One question is that of authorship and exchange which is addressed by Taylor to some extent. The concept of labor and the transactions/exchange of the rewards of labor (i.e. some form of currency or item of trade or barter) creates extremely problematic relations between game worlds and gaming spaces.

Castronova takes this forward to talk about governance and how governance becomes a contentious and debated issue within virtual worlds. As he points out the US supreme court recognizes games as speech and thus there are constitutional protections accompanying this space that makes the game companies the ‘De Facto’ governments of this space. The liberation movement is second life is an excellent example of how users and service providers differ on the rights of individuals in these spaces. To this effect, the Raph Koster’s website has a detailed write up on the rights of avatars. The second life liberation movement and the associated democratic or so called democratic movements have both faltered as of 2007. There are some minor movements still active and operating within these spaces but not as close to the movements in 2007. The movements have faltered in light of the highly aggressive posture by second life towards any such movements. The aggressive posture taken by corporations towards such movements is not localized to only second life/lindenberg. One possible reading that can be done in this space is the colonizer and colonized reading which can be used to interpret and read the spaces and political activity within these spaces. The developer is often takes the position of the colonizer and the user often if not always takes the colonized position. This statement requires a certain amount of justification since this will not be true in gameplay tactics which allow for an internalization of war and conquest and systems of colonization which are quite different. Colonisation is through a system of policies and rules that bind player participation in a particular server/space by a service provider/developer such that there exists either a expulsion or deterrence through punishment for failure to participate in the set rules of the developer. Many resistances in online spaces occur in this region of space.

The idea of labor and ownership as well as concepts of revenue generation and compensation needs more probing. The concept of ‘Game Time’ as Castronova calls it, is found in Taylor, as she reiterates the time and money spent in the development of characters, avatars, cultures, and the communities that emerge from activities here. This is important to make a note of largely because the economies of gaming depend on time (spent virtually) as an important variable in production. Attention currency as a concept in advertising and marketing exists largely in this domain as reiterated by Thomas H. Davenport. Davenport examines the notions of attention currency and attention economy keeping time (in virtual synthetic worlds I would rather use Castronova’s term ‘game time’ to sufficiently explain the investment of time in an online gaming activity).

The secondary market (or its beginnings) is examined by Taylor (this terminology is not used by her) who notes its relevance and the ways in which the market evades the attempts of the conglomerate to organize it. Market trades as long as they are within the internal market and the developer makes a profit is an acceptable proposition to the developers. This is an exertion of property rights over user created content to an extent that the content although generated by the user cannot be sold/traded for real money.

Taylor argues that the transfer of online labor into offline cash remained a “cottage industry” until 2000 when Sony blocked the Everquest products (items/identities and other game merchandise) from being sold on eBay.

The arguments of the developers are not all false. There are a large number of fraudulent transactions do require regulation in the event of these cases. In fact August 2009 witnessed one of the first cases where the police acted on a complaint of fraud and arrested an individual. Most such arrests are initiated by Jagex of Runescape or other developers. A Google search for ‘Fraud Arrests and Everquest’ returns news reports of many such cases across the world in just Everquest, by changing search parameters to reflect game worlds or servers such as Runescape and even World of Warcraft different news results can be obtained where by players groups have been caught for legitimate transactions rather than those which were not delivered upon. One major problem with such cases is the regulation of consensual transactions which have been banned by the game developers. As such any transaction even though the parties of the concerned transaction are satisfied with the terms of the transaction is labeled as illegal and fraudulent.

There has been considerable work done on the ‘rights of avatars’ listed on the Raph Koster website, which details the rights of online gamers and the identities they create. The question of rights associated with production and labor of gamers is not either legally or philosophically settled. For that matter the question is not even appropriately addressed. Since real money does flow into the virtual space how is the real economy affected? When these virtual goods cease to exist what happens to the money transactions that dictated these flows. What are some of the mechanisms that mediate these flows?

The examination of how the processes of production and virtual gaming labor are informed by attention and flows of attention is therefore relevant to my study of attention currencies and economies. What is required is not just an examination of these spaces but the ideologies that inform and even inflect the progression of these spaces. The ideologies operating here can be located as an extreme form of capitalistic tendencies that sometimes are not reflected in the real world. The extremities of controlled trade and production of goods and services that are effectively controlled so that virtual economies thrive are interesting spaces to note largely because such practices have failed in the Real World.

http://cis-india.org/research/cis-raw/histories/gaming/india-game-developer-summit-in-bangalore-2010

The India Game Developer Summit Lite was sufficiently provocative in showcasing the developer community in India and the latest advancements made by the corporate sponsors. The presentations did not appropriately address creative development and management except for a few made by Keita Iida, Carl Jones, and possibly Varun Nair which stood out for the specific focus on creativity. The overall focus was on PC gaming with inroads into Web, mobile, and a smattering of social games. Console Gaming was present in a few statistics presented but did not figure elsewhere at the conference.

On Presentations

One key feature found in the presentations made by Carl Jones, Keita Iida, and Varun Nair at IGDS was the focus on creating immersive environments and naturally all the three took different approaches suiting their areas of specialization. The other presentations bordered on marketing and sales pitches, promoting the presenters’ products, and were not sufficiently detailed other than pushing the presenter’s products and services. These three presentations stand out for their focus on creativity in game development, design, and research with data pertaining to the industry and not limited to their products or companies.

Carl Jones – Envision, Enable, Achieve.

Carl Jones from Crytek made an excellent keynote speech with a focus on their latest advancement; the CRYENGINE 3.0. A demonstration video showcased synchronous editing capabilities for multiple platforms as well as real time ‘edit and play’ functionality. What you see is [truly] what you get. Their engine is currently not set for a public release but can handle textures and fluid rendering with amazing ease on a standard 500$ machine. The detailed and fluid real-time editing cuts development time from weeks to a matter of days, not a possibility a few months earlier. The technology targets low end machines and has a higher market but both Nvidia and Crytek made it clear that their focus for development is going to be high end devices and technology for high end machines.

Crytek’s entire focus is on the development and sustainability of creativity, so that new technology could provide better rendering at better speeds and visuals. Cryengine 3.0’s capabilities in developing a truly interactive, immersive, and realistic environment were demonstrated at the keynote speech. The destructive environments and fluid/texture rendering made designing and editing seem as simple as using a brush (convinced of its capabilities as an engine but still skeptic about its simplicity in user interactivity). The dynamic lighting, downward light shafts, ocean rendering, view distance, soft shadows and particle rendering (fog, etc) and its real-time synchronous editing capabilities left no doubt as to Cryengine 3.0’s superiority in the competitive game developer market.

The keynote speech recognized one main deficiency in game development, there is a problem incorporating graphics and realistic physics. Jones showcased how at Crytek, the motto ‘the difficult takes a day and impossible takes a week’ works. Looking at the developer tools demonstrated at the summit that motto is quite realistic. Crytek’s focus is to make everything interactive and the CryEngine 3.0 demonstrates that focus. As a matter of fact Crytek has incorporated Star Data from NASA into their games. Star navigation based on the digitally (re)created skies in their games is possibility. The elements they bring in to build in realism to gaming will be interesting to follow, since realism often meant higher graphics requirements.

Keita Iida – Technology and Market Trends in the PC game Industry

The focused session by Keita Iida of Nvidia placed the growth of Indian markets in perspective including online markets (and digital releases) and offline growth plotted through hardware sales. The numbers and statistics presented showcased the strength of the growing gaming market particularly in Asia. The revenues of the Asia segment in the entire MMOG revenues is 76.6 percent globally, the United States and the West is lagging in terms of revenue generation in the MMOG segment but their recent growth is set to shoot up to 1.3-1.5 billion USD by 2013. Similar numbers in the social gaming segment was also reiterated by Sumit Gupta (the CEO and founder of BitRhymes). What they both articulated differently was that there was tremendous money in gaming both online and offline and India had sufficient infrastructure to capitalize on the gaming markets for online as well as offline products and releases.

Keita Iida argued that the online gaming market in India was in excess of 60 million USD assuming that these games were serviced locally. This still leaves out contribution from the Indian segment globally, such figures are also hard to plot out. Some of the numbers that Nvidia made available were from their own sales and marketing statistics. The DX10 capable computers globally were 171 Million as of 2009 and DX9 capable machines around 102million, which had a Geforce installed base. Keita Iida’s statistics pointed to one thing – the Asian markets were far ahead of the other markets both in online and offline releases. Nvidia as an organization and developer would provide an ideal space for game developers to reach out to a larger global market provided they were Nvidia technology compatible. Keita Iida made an effective marketing pitch for Nvidia and provided enough data and statistics globally and locally as well as company specific data that made the presentation more accessible. This presentation was one of the few that involved industry movements and statistics with a focus on creative development.

Varun Nair – Quality Asset Creation & Sound as a Storyteller

The most creative presentation was perhaps the one made by Varun Nair on ‘Sound as Storytelling and Quality Asset creation’. We had interacted prior to the conference as well as during the presentation and he provided a lot of information on the pre- and post-production cycles where sound design and incorporation was most effective. His presentation was remarkably different and stood out from the others largely because his focus was not on pushing his own projects or company agenda, rather he attempted to place the relevance of the sound design industry in the creative processes of the game’s design stages.

The session focused on the relevance of sound and visuals and the effective placement and modulation of sound to the visuals to communicate the desired effect. The main example used was an FPS where the ambient sounds and the player sounds had to be placed in perspective with the enemy sounds to create an immersive environment. This translates into sounds being modulated and dynamic as gameplay progresses  to effectively create immersive structures. The lack of this immersive effect will create confusion and destroy the effect even if the visuals are designed effectively. This is interesting largely because if you hear gunfire not represented in your visuals – as a character – you’re able to react effectively to the enemy based on sound alone. Quite a few games use this strategy to provide and create an immersive structure. There was a good emphasis on the development of sound particularly since it enables a certain human emotional response to that sound and developers of successful AAA games have used this strategy to create emotional engagement of the player with the game narratives. Varun Nair also pointed out the relevance of sound in making connections and here he mentioned using real world sounds and digitally created and re-engineered sounds. The effects he demonstrated with a training exercise, where he played out real world sounds and enhanced sounds to create a suitable environment. On making connections with the ‘experiential residual narrative’ as the Videogame theorist Henry Jenkins would put it, Varun Nair pointed out how sound design is created effectively to cater to certain specific feelings encountered before. Artificial sounds are specifically created to suit the artificiality of an environment and here he used the example of ‘Transformers’, the movie to explain artificial sound effects as well as information overload. The focus of designed sounds is largely towards creating an environment in which the main focus is to reiterate the environments artificiality largely used in Sci-Fi media and gaming.

Most sound designers only receive images and they have to create sounds often from scratch to suit the environment. In his demonstrations he showcased the kind of creativity that sound designers and engineers are capable of in designing the environments we hear and interact with in gaming simulations. Varun Nair also focused on Information Overload and how the effective blend of sound and visuals would form an ideal blend to counter this overload. He went has far as saying that at certain points an underload was preferred since there was less player fatigue due to overload. The design structures have to be suitably different particularly for non linear media such as gaming. Varun Nair mentioned the cocktail party effect where the human mind is able to focus on a few important sounds and tune out the rest as well as the 2.5 theme rule. The 2.5 theme rule emphasizes the perfect Balance between Visuals, Audio, and Sound effects. Among others were quality asset creation and the involvement of the sound designer in the early stages of the game to capitalize on creative development.

Sumit Gupta from BitRhymes and Hemant Sharma from Adobe

The presentation by Sumit Gupta was very detailed, with a focus on audience interactivity. The data Sumit used was excellent and placed the entire scenario in perspective; perhaps the overwhelming response to his presentation may have overwhelmed him a little. The data on social gaming in India and the lack of monetization in the current market scenario and the possibilities of monetization was explored in detail. The problem if any was in setting up these structures and infrastructure backing in India which was lacking. Payment systems and methodologies would ensure the creation and transaction of virtual goods. The data on the Chinese and Japanese markets and the Asian and World trends was extremely detailed, so much so that some of these statistics were scary. Most social gamers do not realize that data is being collected on them as they play and this was demonstrated in some of the internal statistics that Sumit presented. The information presented included age groups of the users, their purchasing power, spending power, and the relationship between the users who trade is almost totalitarian in terms of information collection. Privacy laws allow that generic data are collected but the presentation of these data and statistics reminds the viewer on just how much information is accessible to these developers. Hemant Sharma’s presentation later was highly technical and demonstrated the development of games for mobile devices on Adobe Flash CS5 which is currently only out on a beta release. The presentation there also talked about the ways in which a mobile app could gain access to the OS features to run better. Most of these features give undue access to the app developer to geolocationary movement information. Along with access to other apps which may store generic information which is user specific. This talk shed light on the amount of access that a mobile app developer has to the geolocationary and personal data stored on the phone. Although the perspective was to showcase the functionality of Flash Professional CS5, currently released as a beta version, details emerged on the kind of easy access a developer has to change mobile app settings to gather data. The possibilities that a malicious use of the data would compromise user security emerges strongly when reflecting on this presentation.

DSKs Presentation – Sell your Game, Adopt a Game Designer!

DSK Supinfogame had a booth at the India Game Developer Summit along with AIGA the Asian Institute of Gaming and Animation. DSK’s presentation was to be held by Philippe Vachey but a change in schedule had another member from DSK make the presentation. Their focus rested on Gamespot reviews and game journal rankings to showcase the problems that arise due to the lack of relevant design in games that would otherwise have been AAA releases. They had some really important points to make. A 30million USD project is not going to have developers and designers with one year experience and without a cohesive unit centered on design aspects a game may as well not make an AAA rating let alone an A or a B rating.

Networking @ IGDS

Networking at the India Game Developer Summit was one of the main benefits of the summit. The presentations, other than the few mentioned here in detail, were largely oriented towards marketing their own companies and products or sales pitches to this effect. I had already talked to Varun Nair (from bluefrog presenting Sound as Storyteller and Quality Asset Creation) prior to meeting him at the conference and discussed mutual interests in gaming and narrative communication in gaming. Before his presentation I had the opportunity to get a preview of his presentation and its main focus on presenting the relevance of sound design and its ideal placement to create an immersive environment which can be effective or confusing depending on how the visuals and sounds interact with each other to create an ideal immersive environment rather than information underload or worse overload and player fatigue. The discussion also revolved around my current research project and research interests in the Indian Gaming scene. Varun Nair is based in Bombay and works for Bluefrog, a company which specialises in sound creation for games.

Prior to the conference, Rev Lebaredian and Simon Green from Nvidia Corporation were available at the Nvidia booth and right after trying out Batman Arkham Asylum in 3D (with the Geforce 3D stereoscopic vision kit); Varun Nair joined us and we discussed my research interests as well as my project at the Centre for Internet and Society and its requirements. Rev and Simon were very accessible (not mobbed yet) and gave me a lot of details on their partnership programs and their products and upcoming releases. Being engineers they had very little data on the Indian market both virtual and offline, and the approximate industry revenues. Rev and Simon offered details on who might have access to the information I needed and told me some information pertaining to Nvidia might be shared but large part is internal and not for public access.

The interaction with Kiran was the most productive and engaging we discussed games of mutual interest and the goldfarming activities on his own server (one of the highest bids on eBay for an account on his server was above 566 pounds [GBP]) he also focused on goldfarming in India and how that is very little documentation of any sort on these activities. His own research is on improving design in online games to provide better retention, higher virality, and immersive environments.

Post the key note session, the opportunity to speak to Philippe Segard and Lionel Chaze from ‘DSK supinfogame’ presented itself. They were designers engaged with game design training and also had modules that addressed the online gaming segment. On hearing about my project they assumed that I was adopting a critical theory approach to a single game and its content and examining only that (which is also something I am doing as a part of my research read more on my blog). I explained some of my research interests and those of the project in examining the gaming ecosystem in India both virtually and offline, this was more appealing to both Philippe and Lionel who agreed to give feedback on the project as it proceeds. Robin Alter from Kreeda Games was available after his presentation and spoke to me about the future for the Indian markets and the growth they were expecting in the online as well as offline game segments, as publishers most of their focus was on offline products. Robin also spoke about Gold farming in India and how most of it is undocumented and has very little studies conducted on them particularly in the Indian context. Gold farming itself is prevalent in India and is not as minor as thought earlier looking at the responses by Online Server statistics only in India. Playdom’s Business operations manager Nagabhushan Rao also reiterated that there are cases of gold farming on their servers and few cases are logged in India as well. However, as developers they have very few mechanisms to control this activity, largely since their user base is approximately around 2.5 million (aggregate). He also happened to mention how Zynga could afford to proactively target such practices since their large user base would sustain these mitigating blocks. Playdom is developing a few mechanisms to track such usage and abusage of their credit but as of early 2010 they have very few mechanisms that would ban player activity for these practices.