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The One Hundred Dollar Question

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The last two days have been most enlightening, in ways I had not anticipated.

It all began when Valve announced that Greenlight, the vote-based submission system for Steam, would now come with a $100 price tag for developers. The money wouldn’t go to Valve, but to a popular (with gamers) charity called Child’s Play; the point of the fee was not to enrich Valve, but to stop all the bogus and unprofessional submissions that were flooding the system.

A few developers said “$100 is a lot for some people.” Then all hell broke lose, and my understanding of the indie scene was permanently altered.

—

My first thought after I filled out the Greenlight submission form for The Sea Will Claim Everything and clicked “publish” was wait, there’s no approval queue? That struck me as very peculiar. This is the internet. Any submissions system is likely to be abused within seconds. It’s entirely normal for blogs to keep comments for moderator approval to make sure they’re legit. Why was Greenlight allowing any submission to go through?

It was also peculiar that Greenlight was being advertised on Steam without any mention of the word “indie”. It made the service sound more like GOG’s Request Games feature than like a replacement for Steam’s old submissions procedure. But here were all these other games by my indie colleagues, so clearly I wasn’t in the wrong place.

There was more that struck me as odd. Games could be downvoted as well as upvoted, which didn’t seem to serve any purpose except to create negativity. (Why would Valve care how many people didn’t want to buy something? That doesn’t answer the question of whether there is a market for said something.) And, well, the whole system itself was kind of scary. Would it really be possible for games to be discovered here?

Maybe it was silly to worry about all these issues. Maybe I was just tired. It was four in the morning, after all. I’d been so excited to finally be able to submit my game through this much-hyped system that I stayed up all night. I knew my chances weren’t huge, especially because TSWCE doesn’t really fit into recognizable categories very well, but with the amazing reviews it had gotten and the support of the people who loved it, this was worth a shot, right? It would almost certainly not get a million upvotes, but maybe it would get enough attention and support for Valve to be interested. They had picked some “weird” indie games before, after all. That games like The Dream Machine and Analogue: A Hate Story were on Steam gave me hope.

Predictably enough, Greenlight was soon full of absurd submissions. Some were joke submissions by trolls, some were submissions of mainstream games by people who thought this was a request-a-game service. Some were just fakes that existed for no good reason. And then there were tons of submissions that were not games, but just concepts for games. These, however, were considered legit; apparently Greenlight was taking inspiration from Kickstarter. Except this made absolutely no sense, because a nonexistent game getting Steam approval doesn’t benefit anyone. It’s still nonexistent.

For the people browsing for games to vote for, it was almost impossible to discover a new game. The list of games re-ordered itself at random as you went from page to page, so you kept seeing the same games over and over, while other games never appeared. There were no good sorting options. It was a mess. The only games that were getting massive numbers of views were the ones that were already hugely popular, i.e. Project Zomboid. The sort of games, that is, that wouldn’t really have needed Greenlight all that much in the first place.

Other developers were getting really nasty comments from adolescent (physically and/or mentally) users who either didn’t understand Greenlight or simply hated indie games for not being Call of Duty. Games weren’t being judged by Steam’s massive international audience – those folks are there to buy games, not trade insults. Games were being judged by a subset of users that was not necessarily representative.

I got relatively lucky – after a few unpleasant comments in the beginning, it was all very positive, even from people who had never heard of my work before. But comments aren’t votes. Last time I saw the statistics for my game, before Valve removed users’ ability to see them, they were at 44% positive. And, as with most games, 0% towards getting on Steam. No wonder – other games had more than ten times as many views, and they were at 2%.

It was becoming obvious that Valve hadn’t thought this through properly, a fact which surprised most of us in the indie scene. Valve is normally pretty good about this sort of thing; if nothing else, they tend to be very professional. But by allowing game ideas (of which everyone famously has one – or a million) and not moderating the submissions process directly, they’d demonstrated a surprising lack of knowledge about the world of indie game development.

Then came the announcement about the $100 fee.

I wasn’t angry at Valve. I thought and still think that it’s a massive mistake for everyone involved, and I am in no way comfortable with Steam’s monopoly on the games market, but I don’t think this behaviour by Valve was meant to be malicious. They didn’t think “ha, screw the poor!” That the fee goes to charity shows that this isn’t about greed. The methods are misguided, but the intent is fine. So I didn’t get angry at them, and I’m still not angry at them.

But I did get very, very angry.

I wish the discussion that followed could’ve been about what would be a better system of keeping out the nonsense. I wish we, the developers, could have gotten together and written a letter to Valve that would go something like this:

Dear Valve,

We appreciate your attempts to make the process of submitting to Steam a better one. Even though many of us wish that the selling of games worked a little differently, the truth is that Steam is a very important market for a lot of indies, and can make a huge difference in our lives. But we’re sorry to say that you’ve gone off in the wrong direction. The $100 fee does not cut out the nonsense (at least judging from our experience with other platforms), but it does exclude many of us indies who come from economic backgrounds that simply do not allow them to spend $100 on the mere possibility of being judged by a subset of the Steam community that is generally not very friendly to indie games.

Thus, to make it possible for the cooperation between indies and Steam to continue and to be as pleasant and efficient as possible, please implement the following measures:

- Hold submissions in a moderation queue.

- Do not allow game ideas – only actual projects.

- Require each entry to have a functioning demo.

- Add better sorting options.

- Remove the downvote option.

- Reword descriptions to clarify that Greenlight is about indie games.

- If necessary, require a nominal fee. Instead of $100, just $5 or even $1 would be enough to deter most trolls. Even a very high fee will not deter those who are delusionally convinced that their game is perfect.

- (various other suggestions by people with better ideas than myself)

In this way, those of us from non-privileged backgrounds will still be able to participate in the Greenlight process, while a large percentage of unserious submissions will be eliminated.

Regards,

The Indie Game Development Scene

Wouldn’t that have been nice? Wouldn’t it have been nice if it was obvious to all these people that $100 is a lot of money to some of us? I mean, sure, people aren’t always aware of the ways in which they are privileged, but surely independent developers of all people would get that some of us have very, very low budgets? Surely independent developers, who have chosen to work outside the traditional system, should be those who know best that those with the most money are not always the most deserving? Having had to balance budgets and figure out ways of making games without the resources of a corporation, shouldn’t it be easy for most game developers to imagine that others, with a worse starting situation than their own, could find it impossible to spend this much money on what is essentially a gamble?

No, apparently not.

I have never seen the division of society along lines of economic class show itself so suddenly and so clearly. You’d think things would be a little more complicated than that. It’s bizarre and depressing that they are not.

A disappointingly large number of developers and journalists could not even imagine that some people don’t have this amount of money. I found this genuinely shocking. It’s not that they hadn’t experienced it themselves, but that they could not even conceive of it. That’s a disconnection from reality so fundamental that it is quite frightening. Ever wonder why there aren’t more political games? This is why. Not only are the majority of developers (those who have a voice, anyway) white heterosexual middle-class males from the US or the UK, but a scary amount of them have absolutely no understanding of the existence of anything outside their own experience, and are in fact offended by the very suggestion that anything else exists.

It began with statements like “$100 isn’t that much.” Some even added examples, like having spent $100 at a bar recently – as perfect an illustration of privilege as I can imagine. Then people were saying “if your game can’t earn $100 on its own, you have bigger problems.” Finally it was “if you don’t have $100 to spend, you’re not a real game developer.”

The sheer blindness that can cause people to say these things is staggering. How do you even explain something so fundamental, so obvious?

Some of us are poor. Poor isn’t like when you spent $100 at a bar  last night and you decide to only spend $50 next time you go drinking. Poor isn’t when you can only afford to go to one convention this year instead of three. Poor isn’t when you can’t afford to get the newest iPad because you’ve been investing in your business. Poor is when you don’t know how you’ll pay the rent. Poor is when you stand in the supermarket trying not to have a nervous breakdown because all you can afford is the same shitty pasta you had yesterday and the day before. Poor is when you’ve got crushing debt because your parents never had the money to help you, because they worked their whole lives and got nothing for it.

Poor is when every cent you earn goes to buying you another day under a roof, not to a gamble disguised as an investment. Why don’t we have a hundred dollars from selling ten games? Because we need to live.

It is particularly offensive when this is seen as some kind of insufficient desire to struggle – or even as entitlement. We struggle more than you can imagine just to be here. That we have, despite our poverty, managed to make these games, is a fucking miracle. We started with less than nothing, and we have the entire system sitting on our backs. “Oh, do you think I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth?” comes the response. Yes. Yes you were. Compared to some of us, to many of us in fact. And it’s OK, everyone should live like you do, or even better. I don’t want you to feel guilty. But at least be aware of it. Don’t be the guy in the middle who keeps everyone else down so the elites can stay where they are. Or at least don’t be an asshole.

To some people, $100 is not a lot of money. To me and my wife (who works two jobs), it’s a week’s worth of food or more. To others, it’s a month’s wages. Do we have absolutely no understanding of the fact that the internet is a global phenomenon and so is indie game development? Even ignoring the fact that developing games requires a great deal of time and effort, platitudes like “why don’t you get a job to finance your game development” don’t help much in countries where there are no jobs, or jobs pay next to nothing. Hell, have you read the statistics on poverty in the United States? Do you think these people want to be poor? Do you think they deserve to be poor?

Maybe that’s the heart of the argument. People have so internalized the ideological myths of capitalism that they believe the poor deserve to be poor. If you don’t have $100, your game must suck, because if it didn’t, you’d already be rich (despite not having access to not only the biggest market, but also to a major source of legitimacy in the eyes of consumers and critics). More than that, you’re not even a game developer – like Calvinists or Social Darwinists, the entitled are certain that their entitlement means they are the chosen, superior few, and everyone else is doomed anyway.

Platitude followed upon platitude in the debate, in a way that sadly resembled every other similar debate about poverty and class. If you’re unemployed, why don’t you get a job? If your audience isn’t big enough, why don’t you get a bigger audience? If you don’t like being a janitor, why don’t you become a lawyer? Hilariously, some touted the possibility of loans as a solution – the history of capitalism repeating itself as farce.

—

Anna Anthropy, one of the indie gaming scene’s stars, is no longer a real game developer. Amon26 isn’t a real game developer, either. As for my own The Sea Will Claim Everything (“a must-have”, “delightfully evocative”, “an instant classic”, “made me truly proud of what the medium can accomplish”), it is a bad game, because if I hadn’t submitted to Greenlight before the fee, it wouldn’t be on there. I don’t have $100 to invest. And I’m already in a much, much better situation than people in countries poorer and/or more exploited than Germany.

Do the people who say “you’re not a real game developer” know that poverty is a real thing? That the games they play are often made by people who are quite poor? That the indie scene they see as a pathway to riches was to a large degree created and shaped by people who didn’t have $100?

Forget Greenlight. Forget Valve. Valve is just a company that made a mistake. The question isn’t what Valve is doing, the question is what we are. Is this what indie games are now? A playground for privileged folks who want to pat themselves on the back for being chosen? A space that is not about challenging the mainstream by expanding what is possible (and popular) with games but about reinforcing the mainstream by creating a niche where only what is alternative in a safe and instantly profitable way is supported?

They used to say indie game developers weren’t real game developers. Now they’re saying poor indie game developers aren’t real indie game developers. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

Is this how we will be judging not only games, but people from now on? Is the hundred dollar question the new criterion for who gets included? Because if it is, don’t put me on your list.

191 Comments
by Jonas on September 6, 2012  •  Permalink

Posted in Thoughts

Posted by Jonas on September 6, 2012

http://www.jonas-kyratzes.net/2012/09/06/the-one-hundred-dollar-question/

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Inconcievable

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I’ll admit, I was caught by surprise and increasingly upset by the number of people I’ve encountered on the internet who couldn’t possibly conceive of a scenario whereby you own a computer, you own all the development software and you make videogames but you can’t possibly have $100, closely followed by the “if you’re serious, you’ll have $100 dollars” crowd. I know it’s not said with any sort of malice and I know that a lot of it comes out of a genuine inability to understand how that’s even possible. Jonas has touched upon the broader scope of things but as I touched on, angrily, on Twitter earlier I’ve learned exactly how it’s possible. I’m not going to go too in depth but the past 2 years of my existence are how it’s really, really, not inconceivable that such a scenario should arise.

You see, two years on the run, close to Christmas, my body decided to pack itself in somehow. First year, my appendix decided it was pretty much time to go pop. Turns out, it’d decided a while before but hey, I’d never had an appendix about to go before, how was I to know? I got rushed into hospital and rushed into an emergency operation with a great surgeon who fixed me up in no time. I got out of hospital a few days before Christmas. I don’t exactly live the highlife and the fares required for Mrs B to come and see me in the weeks I was in hospital drained our Christmas fund. It happens.

A year later and I get “something like pneumonia”. Fuck knows what that was but it befuddled the Docs all the same. It befuddled me too because it was fucking horrible. I still don’t know quite how bad I was but I’ve seen the photos of when I came out and I’ve got a vague memory of it being pretty bad. I know I was gaunt and I know my hair fell out in clumps for months afterwards. A few weeks out of hospital and I rolled up to give a talk in London whilst whacked off my tits on painkillers. That was weird. I drew a dick. It was fun. But anyway, at the end of the fortnight of me being in hospital, we’re bone fucking dry and out of money again. For the second year running I’d managed to go into hospital and Mrs B had to spend the Christmas money on coming to see me. But y’know, loads of people know this bit because loads of people saved our Christmas.

I’m grateful for that still and it’s one of the reasons why, even though some of the talk I’ve heard over the past few days upsets me greatly, I still know that people are for the most part actually really good people who genuinely want to and will help. So y’know, I hope this doesn’t come across as me attacking anyone, it’s not that. It really is just me saying that it’s not inconceivable and you’d be really fucking surprised how easily you can get kicked down.

So yeah, shit happens and I’m not well for quite a while afterwards though and that’s time I’d have normally spent making videogames. Instead, I’m stuck on the sofa for way too long having realised that maybe, just maybe, I’m going to have to rest this one out a bit and not go gallivanting off everywhere. After a bit I start to pick myself up and start working on games again, inbetween getting some exercise and stuff and doing general housey-things.

Let’s go back a few months, a few moments before I was due to go on stage in Nottingham for a talk at Game City, Mrs B had a pain in her stomach that seemed to kick her down really hard. Amazing timing, obviously, but we thought maybe it’s just something a bit wonky and to be honest, didn’t really think that much of it. So off I go, slag off Sonic 4 and we get back to tootling around Nottingham with pals and having a few larks.

Sometime after I’m out of hospital and trying to get myself back on my feet the kicking pain starts becoming a regular feature. And it’s getting worse. So doctors, hospitals, scans and all that shit and nothing. Fuck knows what this thing is. But here’s what it ends up doing, it ends up hospitalising Mrs B on a fairly regular basis. Eventually the pain becomes a very regular feature. All day, every day. And it’s so bad, painkillers don’t work and Mrs B ends up on the sort of thing they give late stage cancer sufferers. And it still doesn’t kill the pain. And we still haven’t found out what it is but it’s clearly something going very wrong, something very painful that necessitates ambulances having to be called at all hours when the pain finally gets too much again and hospital treatment is required. And then the whole hospital thing goes tits up with a ward that makes a shit of things whilst this thing is being investigated. And they don’t just shit things up slightly, they shit it up massively but y’know, that’s something we’re still prodding at. Upshot is, Mrs B comes out worse than when she went in.

And then we find out what it is. It’s a rare kind of hernia that’s pretty much considered a thing that people don’t get anymore, it means that Mrs B’s innards are blocked up and shitted up and if she doesn’t get an op quickly, things will stop working and I’ll be minus one wife. For various often infuriating reasons, this takes a fucking age to organise and arrange. But we do it. We get the op.

But this is shit there’s no control over and it’s shit you wouldn’t believe. I’ve got Mrs B in and out of hospital and I’m throwing money down on taxi fares a fuckton more than I’d want because there’s days I just can’t get to the hospital any other way, there’s days where I need to get Mrs B around to appointments when she’s out and politeness dictates that sitting there, hunched up and screaming in pain to yourself is considered a bit rude so public transport is kinda out the window and I’ve got a kid to get to and from school as well. And this is what I consider normal for a whole six months from the moment it started kicking off big style to the weeks where Mrs B has to cold turkey off the painkillers.

Money just flies out of every orifice at this point. There’s no other way to get through. Every last bit you have goes towards surviving in one way or another. Sometimes, it’s buying a fucking videogame so you don’t go off your box with the madness and trust me, day in, day out of having the person you love the most screaming in pain next to you drives you a little batty. But mainly it’s on transport, lots and lots of transport. And a bit of eating inbetween because you gotta eat. And it wipes you out. Absolutely wipes you out. You think you’ve got a buffer, you think you’re going to be OK but that buffer gets pulled so very fast because priorities. Fuck money, health.

What else are you supposed to do, really? There’s nothing else you can do.

But you know, it really hurts to sit there throwing money out to survive and where your home life and idea of normal is something so alien to most people (because thank everything this does not happen to most people) to be told that you’re not a serious game developer because you haven’t got $100 and if you were, you’d be able to find a way to get it. It’s the serious game developer bit that really hurts though. Oh yeah, that’s the fucker. I’m glad no-one did that then but every time I hear that now, I’m back at last year thinking how quickly, how easily and how without anything I could possibly do to avoid it, if it happened to me again tomorrow, there’s people who’d think I’d magically stop being a serious game developer over $100 I’d be throwing out on existing and supporting my family.

In the middle of all this chaos, whilst the world was going to shit around me and I was sat trying to work out how I could get to and from hospitals when I needed to and eat, in the moments where Mrs B was asleep or resting, the times when I’d managed to get the kid off to bed before 10pm because we’d had no hospital visits that day, I made part of a game. And I did that because that’s how serious I am about making games. It’s one of the things that keeps me grounded, it keeps me sane and it’s something I love to do. So I did that. I made a part of a game and you know, I think it turned out fairly well and I’m really proud of it and I’m glad I got to help give someone a leg up in the process. I wrote all the challenge mode parts to Waves whilst Mrs B was either asleep or in hospital. Because that’s what I do. I make games. Some days I was level designing to the sound of my wifes pained utterances. I’d have preferred some Talk Talk or something but hey, sometimes you take what you have to.

(Rob’s probably going to shit himself when he reads this because I haven’t really told anyone about most of this. Rob, I’ll hope you appreciate that I had a great time designing those bits and I wouldn’t change doing it and Waves is fucking awesome. So shit ye not.)

And here’s the punchline. I had a computer. I had development software. I had art packages. I had sound packages. I had a whole myriad of stuff sitting on my computer. I had UDK and some wonderful guidance from Rob too. I didn’t have $100 I could throw down on a gamble as a business expense. Luckily, I didn’t need $100 as a business expense either but I’ve found out the past few days that this would make me entirely not a serious developer according to some people.

How the fuck does that work?

It works because, thankfully for them, most people can’t conceive of situations like this arising. In many ways, I’m really, really, really glad of this because I wouldn’t wish the year I had last year on anyone and I hope that everyone long continues to not have to face up to situations like this. As my previous stays in hospital and brushes with carking it proved, it doesn’t take long for those buffers you have to disappear. When an illness (yours or your partners) goes on for months, then fuck buffers, it’s survival time. You can’t just start selling stuff to raise a fee, you can’t go out and “get a proper job” to raise a fee because you get a very proper job really fast. But you can still make games. You can still own a computer, you can still own all the software in the world because you bought all these things prior, before things went tits up, before life took you on a slightly darker journey than you’re comfortable with. And making games is what you know, it’s what you do and it’s what you enjoy and you can do it fucking well too.

If that’s not being fucking serious about making games, I don’t know what the fuck is.

If that’s not knowing that the world doesn’t owe you a living, I don’t know what the fuck is. Because there’s a phrase that suddenly means a whole lot more, right?

My experiences, well, they’re just one way the inconceivable occurs. One way that a person can be a serious developer and not be able to scrape a fee together for a submissions gamble. I’m not special either.

And whilst I hope that these are things that never happen to any readers or any reader’s family, I also hope that next time when someone says they’re absolutely serious developers but no, they don’t have $100 right now, I hope that anyone and everyone reading this will think to listen to their reasons why without jumping to such preposterous conclusions or blindly shouting them down insisting that there are things serious developers would do. Because maybe, just maybe, those folks you’re referring to are sitting there being really fucking serious developers like I was last year.

My names Rob, I used to be a non serious game developer but I’m alright now. And so is Mrs B. Mrs B is alright too.

Thankfully.

I hope to not have to go through anything like that again and I wish the same, always, for you too dear reader. And obviously, I can’t thank everyone enough for their support last year, even those who didn’t have the slightest clue all this was going on. Each one of you knows who you are and I thank you. I probably wouldn’t be making games still without you. You should really know that.

And everyone should know how easily things can fall away. Because they can. And it doesn’t make you any less serious about your line of work or your passion when they do, it just means shit happens.

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No Sex Please, We're Gamers

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By Matthew Handrahan

Wed 05 Sep 2012 10:44am GMT / 6:44am EDT / 3:44am PDT
PublishingDevelopment

No Reply Games’ Miriam Bellard on falling afoul of Steam Greenlight and the industry’s longstanding aversion to sex

When Valve announced Steam Greenlight it seemed like another progressive move from one of the boldest companies in the industry. Steam’s popularity had reached a point where, for the vast majority of independent PC developers, it was the only distribution platform with a large enough audience to offer a realistic chance of success. With the number of submissions growing all the time, Valve turned to the crowd: the community buys the products, so the community should be allowed to decide which products make the cut.

For No Reply Games, however, the reality of Greenlight has been somewhat different from its promise. Founded by two former employees of Guerrilla Games, Miriam Bellard and Andrejs Skuja, No Reply Games focused on perhaps the least developed part of the global market: interactive erotica. There were Japanese Hentai games, there were Flash games with rock-bottom production values, but there was nothing to compare to erotic literature, photography or film. No Reply’s first project, Seduce Me, would effectively combine all three.

“We always intended to at least approach Steam with this,” says Bellard, a softly spoken native of New Zealand, who has been living in Amsterdam since getting a job with Guerrilla. “I think we’d managed to convince ourselves that there was a reasonable chance that they’d take it, and the game was close enough to being finished when Greenlight came around, so we thought we’d get in at the start and see what the community said.”

“It was just a very generic e-mail saying we’d violated and the game was being taken down. It struck us as Valve not wanting to deal with it, not wanting to engage”

The community’s response was polarised. Bellard observed a relatively even split between those calling for Seduce Me to be down-voted and threatening to complain, and those who, for various reasons, believed that content of this sort should be allowed a place on PC gaming’s most pervasive distribution platform. Ultimately, the community didn’t make the final decision; within an hour, No Reply received an e-mail from Valve stating that Seduce Me had violated Greenlight’s terms of service and had been removed from the process.

“It was just a very generic e-mail saying we’d violated and the game was being taken down. It struck us as them not wanting to deal with it, not wanting to engage,” says Bellard. “We were actually really shocked when it went down, because we thought that it would at least be allowed on Greenlight to be discussed. We wouldn’t have minded taking down some of the images if they were considered too racy for the forum, but there was no communication - nothing.

“Before Greenlight happened, when indie developers didn’t get [a game] onto Steam there was usually very little discussion about why not. People would sometimes not receive responses to their e-mails. Based on that behaviour, I can’t see them doing any different here.

“I’ve heard figures from other indie developers, and proportionally Steam accounts for as much as 90 to 95 per cent of their sales. Getting on Steam for an indie developer is the difference between surviving financially or not.”

For Bellard, Valve’s intervention undermines the Greenlight concept. There is a good chance that Seduce Me wouldn’t have received enough votes to pass muster, but the balance between the community’s approval and disapproval was not the deciding factor. The Greenlight website lists two restrictions on acceptable content: “Your game must not contain offensive material or violate copyright or intellectual property rights.” Seduce Me was evidently cast out for violation of the former, causing offence, but this description is far too vague to be useful to any developer wishing to push the envelope in terms of content.

If it can be said that greater diversity in gaming is important for the future of the medium, and it can be said that what offends one person won’t necessarily offend another, then Valve’s decision to remove the game is effectively a political act. How many people need to be offended for a game to be removed? Should the moral compass of certain individuals dictate what content is offered to those with a different view? For Bellard, the side of the argument that Valve chose to take will only convince other developers to err on the side of caution, and create content that won’t transgress a frankly vast possible spectrum of opinion.

“Getting on Steam for an indie developer is the difference between surviving financially or not”

Of course, these strictures on what is deemed fit for sale aren’t difficult to find in the games industry. Apple’s guidelines for iOS submissions have attracted criticism for prohibiting a wide range of themes and subject matter, from sex and sexuality to depictions of animal faeces, but Bellard associates Valve with a different set of values.

“I understand it more on iOS, because Apple has this air of, ‘we’re here to protect you, everything just works and it’s a nice, safe place to be’,” she says. “That’s Apple’s whole ethos: I don’t like it, but I understand it. I don’t understand Valve’s, because it’s supposed to be part of the PC, Linux ethos. I’d always seen them as being on the side of the underdog, on the side of free speech.”

When considering this issue, it’s important to remember Steam’s global reach. Valve sells games to a range of different countries, each with its own standards when it comes to sex and violence: Germany, for example, is more tolerant of sex than violence in cinema, television, gaming and other forms of entertainment; in America that bias is reversed. On the face of it, there’s no practical reason why these varying standards should lead to games with sexual content being excluded - it certainly doesn’t when it comes to violence - but Valve’s decision to remove Seduce Me could simply be an example of playing it safe in a global marketplace.

“I personally don’t think Valve needs [to play it safe],” Bellard responds. “I think Valve is in a position where they could push this if they wanted to. Sure, they might lose a very small amount of their audience, but they would gain others… Why they’ve chosen not to is possibly that they’re part of that American culture, and they view this issue with that American point-of-view.”

“I personally don’t think Valve needs to play it safe. I think Valve is in a position where they could push this if they wanted to”

To a large extent, the righteousness of Bellard’s position is besides the point: Steam is Valve’s platform, just as iOS is Apple’s, and it’s entitled to make decisions about the propriety of different subject matter, even if that basically places that content in a commercial and creative ghetto. Frankly, the deeply conservative response of the Greenlight community is even more provocative.

Bellard and Skuja aren’t pornographers; they are independent game developers attempting to fill a gap in the market that has existed since the dawn of the industry. On one level it’s just good business sense, and yet Seduce Me, which is scarcely more hardcore than 50 Shades of Grey or The Joy of Sex, provoked vitriolic opposition. The complaints went beyond simple disapproval, or the refusal to purchase a product that isn’t to your taste. Many comments were nothing less than blanket condemnations of all sexual content, and Bellard believes this is indicative of the way even the most engaged gamers view their hobby.

“The people we’ve spoken to [about the game] here in Amsetrdam, we just never hit that intensity of disagreement. Many of them felt that it wasn’t for them, but there wasn’t that sense of outrage that we saw from the Greenlight forum,” she says.

“There’s still that historical view of games being for children, and even though the average gamer is now 30 yeas old it’s still the gut reaction. With books, you have children’s books, teen fiction, adult books of all genres. But we tend to view games as one solid category. I think things like this can just be about habit; it’s just what we’re used to.”

This is an important point. Despite the ubiquity of extreme violence - a talking point following this year’s E3 press conferences - the games industry has a somewhat hysterical track record when it comes to sex. The most famous example is the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas mod, Hot Coffee: a mini-game depicting consensual sex between adults that somehow managed to be more controversial than the killing sprees allowed by the game’s mechanics.

“There’s still that historical view of games being for children, and even though the average gamer is now 30 yeas old it’s still the gut reaction”

With this in mind, it’s pertinent to consider how violent a game would have to be to raise a similar level of ire from the Greenlight community, and which side Valve might take in that situation. Similarly, would a product as explicit as Seduce Me have been greeted by the same condemnation if it were on a Greenlight-esque service for film or literature? In a world where Netflix can host Disney fare and art films with scenes of penetrative sex without complaint, it’s certainly hard to imagine.

For Bellard, this is just another teething problem for an industry that is perhaps less mature than those who work within it would believe. The acceptance of sexual imagery and themes has been the source of enormous struggle for every entertainment form, but it was also a vital aspect of their evolution and cultural acceptance. For now, though, there is little encouragement from either the industry or the audience for developers to demolish those taboos.

“That there’s no content like this is exacerbated by the fact that there’s nowhere for it to be sold.,” Bellard says. “Once content starts to appear places will be found for it to live, which will encourage other people to make that kind of content.

“The indie scene is quite young, and I see where we are with games as like where the film industry was in its early years, when it was dominated by the really big studios, before developments in technology allowed people to break away from their control. That’s where games are at the moment. We’ve finally got products like Unity, which allow you to make a game for a lot less money, and allow you to break away from the control of the big companies. And big companies are always more conservative.”

About the author

Matthew Handrahan
Matthew Handrahan joined GamesIndustry in 2011, bringing long-form feature-writing experience to the team as well as a deep understanding of the video game development business. He previously spent more than five years at award-winning magazine gamesTM.

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Wait, Why’s Pirate Bay Promoting An Indie Game?

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Piracy For Fun And Profit

By Nathan Grayson on September 8th, 2012 at 1:00 pm.

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If you’re a frequent RPS reader (or an infrequent RPS reader with uncannily good timing), the image on the front page of ubiquitous, recently-banned-in-the-UK-under-extremely-dubious-circumstances torrenting site The Pirate Bay might strike you as a bit familiar. If not, you may have still been able to guess that it heralds from Sos Sosowski’s McPixel because, well, the first four words on the page will tell you all of that. This, however, is the first time a game has ever been featured as part of Pirate Bay’s “Promo Bay” program – wherein, a creator gets to leverage the site’s incredible reach for exposure. But how’d this come about? And what does it say about the ever-evolving role of piracy in the gaming industry? Plus, given that many file swaps on Pirate Bay are technically illegal, does anyone really deserve a pat on the back in this situation? I spoke with both McPixel’s Sos and an organizer from The Pirate Bay to find out more.

Don’t get mad. Don’t lash out. Just think for a second. Count to ten. Punch a pillow. Do whatever you’ve got to do. It definitely worked for Sos Sosowski.

People were stealing his hard work – his first commercial release ever – right in front of his eyes, and he caught them red-handed. He found a link on The Pirate Bay, and sure enough, it was madcap mini-adventure explosion McPixel in its entirety. But instead of doing his damndest to bust everyone involved, he turned the other cheek. Like one of seemingly nonsensical cause-and-effect relationships in his game, potentially grievous harm to his bottom line prompted him to hand out free stuff.

“I was actually visiting Pirate Bay from time-to-time looking for a McPixel torrent,” Sosowski explained to RPS. “If people pirate games, it means they want to play it regardless of anything. Pirate Bay is one of the most visited sites in the Internet, and just having a torrent there is promotion for the game. I left a comment there, because I wanted people to know that I make games for a living, and that they are directly supporting me with each purchase.”

“I also realised that some people are unable to do that, since PayPal is not accessible in their country, or they don’t have a credit card, or just cannot afford it, because it’s worth their daily or weekly wage. So I went ahead and left few gift codes. It was not much, but I wanted to show that I understand. Some people contacted me asking for different means of supporting me too. I was really happy to hear that people actually care, and i think it shows that piracy is not bad at all. It’s just mis-perceived.”

And then the all-seeing, Sauron-but-more-obsessed-with-cat-videos eye of Reddit took notice. Minutes later, a snapshot of Sosowski’s handout was on the front page of the geek-tested, President-of-the-United-States-approved aggregate site. So Sosowski ran an AMA, and The Pirate Bay decided that kind of community outreach warranted a reward.

“We’ve promoted authors (Paulo Coelho among others), movie producers, musicians, and card game creators so far, but haven’t really seen any super talented game submissions,” one of Pirate Bay’s organizers told me. “When browsing around Reddit one day, I noticed a thread about a Polish dude promoting the torrenting of his own game. So I threw him an email asking if he’d seen our Promo Bay idea and if he’d like to apply. He said hell yeah and that was it.”

“The Pirate Bay Promo is tied with a pay-what-you-want sale on McPixel website, and as of now, there have been around 170 purchases and the torrent has around 2500 seeds,” added Sosowski. “You might think that this points out what big of a problem piracy is, but this is just manipulating facts. Since you can get McPixel for even one cent, this proves that many people have no means of accessing games, and for some, pirating might be the only way to play. It is developers’ fault that they do not provide means for everyone, and I am most at fault, enabling only PayPal-driven purchases.”

Ultimately, that’s the point of all this for both Sosowski and The Pirate Bay: to deal with piracy on its own terms in a day and age where it can no longer simply be shrugged off or pushed back against – despite how desperately many people would like to. It’s tempting, sure, to view piracy as the Big Bad Wolf blowing down houses developers have spent years assembling, but both parties told me – on no uncertain terms – that they don’t view piracy as an enemy. That’s too simple, and in taking such a combative stance, you risk missing the chance to understand why these things keep happening in the first place.

“Piracy is a response, like a rebellion,” opined Sosowski. “When there is rebellion in an unspecified country, it has its reasons. These reasons should be identified and dealt with – not the rebellion itself. Major publishers should ask, ‘Why? What do you want? What can we change?’ I can see that they might be reluctant thinking that ‘talking to barbarians who steal our stuff is not an option’. But it is in their interest to do so. They could gather a lot of fans and satisfied customers if they took the right approach – aka, not fighting to death.”

Meanwhile, Pirate Bay – obviously about as far from impartial as you could get in this scenario – takes things a few steps further. Or rather, it makes a running leap over the Grand Canyon, keeps going, and eventually circles around to Europe, where it wins the Tour de France on foot… further. But there’s certainly a method in what – to some – might seem like madness, and Pirate Bay already has and will continue to fight tooth-and-nail for that cause.

“When we got older (some of us were just in our teens when we started Pirate Bay) and travelled the world, we realized that Pirate Bay meant more than just getting some MP3s for free,” the Pirate Bay organizer told me. “People in less fortunate countries than ours really really needed us. To share secret information, to see culture from forbidden countries, or to find out that there is an alternative to what the mainstream media feeds them. This might sound a bit cheesy to people in the US or EU, but go to Syria (50K visits each day), Saudi Arabia (1M visits), China (800K visits, though most Chinese use proxies) and so on and so on, and ask those people what The Pirate Bay means to them. It has made us a bit more humble.”

Ultimately, though, The Pirate Bay’s current model is still definitely problematic – whether its heart is in the right place or not. Sure, not every pirated copy of something directly equates to a lost sale, but it’d be utterly preposterous to suggest that piracy’s not hurting many creators in a big way. And so, The Pirate Bay does nothing of the sort. Instead, it sees this as a situation where hopefully – at the end of the day – the pros outweigh the cons.

“It’s a tough question, and I wont lie or evade the answer by telling you that some creators don’t get hurt by what we do – cause some do,” the organizer admitted. “But on the other hand, others benefit. We’ve seen numbers of people actually using TPB to their advantage during the years. Nine Inch Nails used TPB to better connect to their fans – and probably gained both new fans and money in the long run. Some major TV networks actually (secretly) released pilots of their own shows on our site to create some kind of a buzz.”

“We believe that the technology is too good not to be used and that it would be a step back in time not to use it. Things will only move on faster from this so each artist that deals with immaterial ‘property’ had better step it up before it’s too late. As the old Chinese proverb goes: ‘When the winds of change blow, some seek shelter, others build windmills.’”

In Sosowski’s opinion, though, it’s less about building a windmill and more about constructing a bridge.

“Piracy is not an enemy,” he explained. “I can’t be orthodox about it, and want my game to retain value – not just give it away for free – and cater to people that have no means to access it otherwise as well. I sarcastically say that ‘real pirates use torrents’, which are not only means of distribution, but provide community. A community of gamers, enthusiasts, fans, and cool people overall, who want to enjoy and share.”

This is, however, terrifyingly uncharted territory, so – at this point – it’s all about measured steps forward mixed with more-than-a-teensy-bit of good old-fashioned fumbling around in the dark. But progress is being made – agonizingly slow thought it might seem.

“Having 20-30 artists get their three days of fame is not enough,” the Pirate Bay organizer said of The Promo Bay’s current state. “So we’re building a dedicated site as we speak that will allow everyone to post their artist profile. If everything works out, we’ll let the audience choose the promo for every week.”

Sosowski, on the other hand, doesn’t have much in the way of experience running file-sharing sites that pull in millions of people every day. He can, however, offer some advice to developers who feel like pirates are constantly besieging them on all sides.

“There are frustrating situations, where a game is pirated a lot but the sales are low – and especially so within indie game developer community, where being poor is not uncommon,” he said. “I can relate, and I would probably get frustrated myself, with my fridge empty and people playing my games for free. But staying angry and frustrated never solves anything. My advice is to think twice, then twice again, and keep in mind that people who pirate your game don’t live in your fridge. They cannot possibly know the source of your frustration. Tell them what’s up and remember that there are real people on the other side.  Never let yourself get frustrated over people actually enjoying your game.”

“Stop hating, and start talking and understanding. This goes to both sides of this conflict. Don’t hate people for wanting to play your game. And don’t hate people for getting mad at you not paying them for their work.”

McPixel is currently available for whatever-you-want-to-pay on its official site. It’s also very, very silly. Give it a shot, if you’re feeling so inclined.

__________________

« Kickstarter Katchup – 8th September 2012 | Story Time With Valve’s Erik Wolpaw, Pt 2 »

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"Games Are Perfect Artmaking Tools": An Interview with Kent Sheely

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“Games Are Perfect Artmaking Tools”: An Interview with Kent Sheely

Robert de Niro in Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver”, from Kent’s project “Zappers” (2011).

Kent Sheely is an American digital artist living in New York City who makes art out of, and about, video games. His work includes real-life installations of Super Mario Boxes, classic war-photography in Day of Defeat and the photography-hack Grand Theft Photo. I wanted to know more about Kent’s approach to video games and asked him a few questions by email. His portfolio can be viewed at his site.

VGT: Why video games? ;)

Kent: When I was a kid, I used to draw up new adventures for my favorite game characters, incorporating their 8-bit worlds into those from my own imagination. I was never satisfied with just playing the games; I was driven to take them to new places. I guess that sensibility just evolved as I grew up and started finding out about other artists who were using video games to create art. They were validating my obsession.

Games are perfect artmaking tools, because like art, they already abstract the real world and can provide new perspectives on it. They’re also a window into both current and nostalgic pop culture, since they have grown up alongside our current generation. It’s an ever-evolving medium.

A majority of my work centers around taking elements from either the real or virtual realm and finding ways to interpret them in the other, like a mashup between simulation and reality. It’s that grey area that I find most interesting.
.

“Ready for Action” (2012) shows video game protagonists at the mercy of public transportation: Ready for action, powerless to act. Audio from the game has been blended with audio captured while waiting for public transportation in the real world.
.
Part of your work focusses on glitches, another on the juxtaposition of game graphics and real life. Is photorealism, that eternal industry goal, relevant?

The answer is both yes and no. It all comes down to what I’m trying to accomplish at the time.

With my work involving glitches, the original appearance generally doesn’t matter, as any shred of realism generally gets pulled apart anyway. I’m more focused on hijacking the graphics engine to create something that’s interesting to look at, rather than just distorting the game. I like seeing the bold, stark colors and shapes of GTA: San Andreas stretched across the screen into impossible shapes, with recognizable but cartoonlike objects occasionally poking through the chaos. The game graphics become something akin to oil paint.

“DoD” (2009-12) captures Robert Capa’s seminal war photography in “Day of Defeat: Source”

Games have been evolving over the years to become more realistic, to blur the line between fantasy and reality and provide the player with a more “authentic” experience. Making the brain question reality, even for a moment, heightens the experience and creates a more immersive environment. But, like abstract paintings, video games don’t have to be realistic to be successful in communicating with the viewer/player. Sometimes the details that our minds fill in are more important than what’s actually on the screen. Photorealism produces images that are closer to the real world, but even simple simulations have graphics that successfully represent abstract ideas. The way a player/viewer connects with those symbols is more important than perfectly mimicking reality. Our brains are pretty good at filling in the gaps.

Because of this fact, I’ve tended to focus more on the concept I’m aiming for, or on a specific mechanic I want to explore, rather than choosing titles with more realistic environments. For example, the simple detail of the in-game camera in GTA: San Andreas is what led me to make Grand Theft Photo, a hack that limits players to using the camera rather than any of the weapons in the game. The fact that you were looking through the camera lens at a virtual world was completely obvious, and yet players were able to capture some very beautifully-composed photos of the game’s expansive world. The limited graphics only added to the awareness that you were creating images of a fabricated reality.

There are definitely occasions where I’ve made use of more photorealistic games in my work, though. It was the relative realism of Day of Defeat that allowed me to assume the role of a photojournalist, and produce images that closely resembled old photographs from World War II. The sky textures I projected onto the ceiling in Skybox were integral to creating the illusion that you were looking up through a skylight in the middle of the building. The intrigue can sometimes come from looking at the results and forgetting momentarily that you’re looking at something that came from a video game.

All of your projects mix the real with the virtual - the Mario Boxes, the Zapper photos, but also the DoD  pics etc. Is the distinction - real vs virtual - becoming obsolete, or even more relevant? Could you tell me why this

relation is so central to your work?

“Be Mario (2007): “Evidently, college students instinctively know what to do.”

I think the relationship between video games and reality is definitely becoming more relevant as games and their graphics get closer to realism, in that it’s becoming easier to take elements from one and simulate them in the other. When games were 8-bit and simple, for example, the idea of virtual photography wasn’t possible. The worlds on the screen were too abstract. Now, with graphics that are becoming indistinguishable from reality, and sandbox worlds that give players existential freedom, the possibilities for exploiting them are becoming more interesting all the time. Like I mentioned before, some of my favorite pieces have hinged significantly on the realism of the source material.

In some of my work, it’s the complete detachment from reality that makes them interesting. Seeing a Super Mario Bros. powerup block floating over a sidewalk in the real world is jarring, because it’s an impossible object. A garish red NES zapper being brandished in a film scene immediately disarms its sense of danger and serious intent. Both extremes seems to work well, albeit in different ways.

The increasing complexity of game spaces has also opened the doors for some really incredible emergent narratives. When gamers get together socially, the conversation will almost always turn at some point to telling stories about battles and events that happened in a game. To an outside observer these stories could almost be misinterpreted as descriptions of actual events. In a way, that interpretation isn’t too far off; the stories they tell are always things that really happened—but in a virtual space, of course. There’s a community I helped create on Reddit (reddit.com/r/storiesofwar) that exists as a place for gamers to recount their most intriguing tales from the virtual battlefield. The events they describe didn’t really happen, but the experiences are always “real” enough to inspire war stories that are interesting to read and are often very well written.

In Grand Theft Photo, you were simulating a bit of ‘videogame tourism’; the artists I feature on ‘Screenshot deluxe’ each week have taken this concept of media art to heart and routinely use games as hunting grounds

for photography. For me, there is a straight distinction between your work, which is conceptual and rooted in media art and  theory, and these artists’ work, who, IMHO,  inhabit these worlds as gamers and strive to document

their beauty from their unique viewpoint. Do you agree? Is in-game-photography still media art - or just photography?

I think the only real distinction between my conceptual “media art” and the virtual photography taken by the artists in Screenshot Deluxe is that I try to push beyond the scope of simply capturing images. However, my work with video games started out exactly the same, by pulling away from the narrative of the games and taking time to appreciate the landscapes, architecture, and ambient environments I was running around in. I also still like to create things for the general gaming community to appreciate. I was a gamer first and an artist second, so at the end of the day we’re all just thinking a little differently about the games we love to play.

“MachiniMediated” (2008): Real photographs, retaken in Garry’s Mod.

The definition of “photography” is difficult to pin down, and has been the subject of many online debates, especially after “screenshot art” started growing in popularity. Photography, in its truest form, involves capturing photons on a piece of photosensitive material, whether that’s a strip of film or an electronic sensor. Taking screenshots doesn’t involve this process, but is the distinction really that important? The photographer and the screenshot-taker are both making images by arranging objects in front of a viewport of some kind, and both processes are capable of creating images that are nice to look at, or are intended to make the viewer feel a certain way. Let’s look at it another way. A video game is a simulation. Taking a screenshot in that game is, therefore, a simulation of taking a photograph. There are lots of screenshot tools that simulate a camera’s depth of field, so some of the same techniques translate to virtual space. The end goal in either case is to produce an image that creates some kind of emotion or just looks pretty, so perhaps putting a label on the activity doesn’t quite do it justice.

Exquisite Corpses [2012]: Glitched “killcam” from Team Fortress 2.

Video games are still stigmatized as adolescent pastimes. Do you see that changing anytime soon, and do you feel your work is relevant to this discussion? Put another way, to touch on Roger Ebert’s infamous verdict: Does media art like yours help games be recognized as art?

I think we’re already at the point where video games are accepted as valid forms of entertainment. They’re officially “in the living room” alongside the television and the now-nearly-obsolete radio, especially with platforms like Wii and iPhone/iPod (and dare I say it - Farmville) putting games in the hands of even the most uninitiated players. My grandfather is addicted to Tetris. My father-in-law can’t stop playing Angry Birds.

Some of my art definitely addresses the distinction. My hacks like the aforementioned Grand Theft Photo set up constructive goals for players, offering new perspectives and attempting to inspire critical thought. Another playable modification I made (incidentally also in GTA: San Andreas) turned the game world into a pure abstraction and the game into an artmaking tool. I’m not sure if all of my work is directly contributing to the discussion about video games themselves being art, but I definitely feel that it at least adds weight to the argument that they are viable tools for creating it.

Certainly anyone using games (in any form) beyond pure escapism, encouraging critical thinking or communicating a message, is contributing toward proving Ebert wrong. We all knew better anyway.

Where do you see the future of games as a medium?

I think in the next few years, I expect video games to become just as common as any other form of entertainment, perhaps even more so. The funding and financial backing for their production will eventually overtake that of blockbuster films as the technology used to create them advances. I also think the development of games for mobile devices, like tablets and smartphones, will continue to gain popularity as the hardware continues to become more powerful. Video games are certainly not going anywhere, as every new generation will now have the opportunity to grow up with the advancing technology.

It’s been interesting to see the rise of motion controls, like the Wiimote and Kinect, in recent years. Those devices are particularly useful for artists and tinkerers, who use the open-source nature of the hardware to create their own interactive

Kent Sheely

hacks. I don’t know what the next step will be, but I guarantee that people like me will be repurposing the equipment as soon as it becomes available.

What are your future projects and ambitions?

I’d definitely like to do some more interactive game hacks and create new ways of playing games. I’ve been working with a lot more video lately (can you call it Machinima if it’s just experimental tinkering?), but not all of the things I start end up making it out of my studio. I have an entire notebook full of ideas, it’s all just a matter of figuring out which ones to do first. Eventually I’d love to create my own art games as well, and maybe build an old-school arcade cabinet to play them in.

This interview is part of VGT’s ongoing series on In-game photography, Screenshot deluxe.

Verfasst von rainer sigl am 4. September 2012 - 14:40

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2011 by Rainer Sigl. Some rights reserved.

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Schau an: Digital Games: A Love Story. Zum Verhältnis von Literatur und Computerspiel.

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(Am 26. Juli 2012 erschien die 33. Ausgabe der »«, einer feinen Zeitschrift für junge Literatur. Und ich war in der Rubrik »LUX« mit einem schönen Essay zur schwierigen Ehe von Literatur und Computerspiel mit dabei. Nach gebührendem zeitlichen Abstand gibt’s den ganzen Text nun auch online:)

BELLA triste #33

Zeitschrift für junge Literatur

ISSN 1618-1727

Preis (D) 5,35 €

Es beginnt – wie so vieles – mit einer Liebesgeschichte. William und Patricia Crowther lernen sich irgendwann in den 1960ern am MIT kennen, heiraten und bekommen zwei Kinder. Will programmiert Routing-Protokolle für das ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), den militärisch-akademischen Vorläufer des Internets. Pat erforscht Höhlensysteme und entdeckt 1972 auf einer Expedition die Verbindung zwischen der Mammoth Cave und dem Flint Ridge Cave System in Kentucky. 1973 kommt es zur Scheidung. Pat heiratet erneut; ihren Expeditionsleiter. Will verarbeitet die Trennung auf nerdige Weise: Er kombiniert die Routing-Probleme des ARPANET mit den nostalgischen Erinnerungen an die gemeinsamen Mammoth Cave-Ausflüge und einer Prise Dungeons & Dragons. Es ist – wortwörtlich – die ›Ankunft‹ des ersten Text-Adventures: ADVENT (1976). Der Computer flirtet mit Literatur.

»This is a path winding through a dimly lit forest.«

Durch die Knotenpunkte eines Computer-Netzwerkes zu navigieren, ist der Wegfindung in einem Höhlensystem recht ähnlich. Es gibt große Räume – Knotenpunkte oder ›Nodes‹ – und es gibt verbindende Gänge – Verknüpfungen oder ›Links‹. Die aus Fantasy-Literatur und Pen&Paper-Rollenspielen entliehenen Dungeons früher Text-Adventures wie Zork (1980) bilden eine geeignete Metapher für die Logik von Netzsystemen. Zwischen Nodes zu navigieren und dann Datensätze mit Hilfe kryptischer Befehle und alphanumerischer Adressen zu verlinken, ist kein anspruchsloses Unterfangen. Aber ›go north‹ und dann ›use key with door‹ geht jedem, der halbwegs alphabetisiert ist, leicht von der Hand auf die Tastatur. Literatur dient hier, so stellt der Medienwissenschaftler Claus Pias fest, der Produktion von »Übergangswahrscheinlichkeit« [1]. Die Beschreibung eines Höhlensystems und die Queste eines Helden legt sich wie eine Folie über die abstrakten Datenbankstrukturen des Computers und ermöglicht Orientierung. Je bekannter, je zwingender das literarische Klischee, desto besser. Aus Höhlenwänden ist kein Entkommen und seit Rotkäppchen verlässt niemand mehr den sicheren Pfad. Literatur ist Interface. Literatur ist Kontrollinstanz. Zweckehe.
Zork (Screenshot: Christian Huberts)
Infocom und andere Entwickler produzieren – inspiriert durch ADVENT – einen stetigen Fluss erfolgreicher Text-Adventures. Und je häufiger die Spieler, ohne es zu merken, durch mathematische Graphensysteme rauschen und Datensätze miteinander verlinken, desto mehr verinnerlichen sie die logischen Strukturen des Computers. Die Rolle von Text als Interface wird unbedeutender. Redundanz und Kontingenz müssen nicht mehr um jeden Preis verhindert werden; die Spieler finden sich auch so zurecht. Selbst gestandene Autoren erkennen jetzt das literarische Potential digitaler Spiele. Ray Bradbury ist direkt an der Entwicklung von Fahrenheit 451 (1986), dem Computerspiel-Sequel seines gleichnamigen Science-Fiction-Romans, beteiligt. Und dem Text-Adventure The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1984) merkt man den unmittelbaren Einfluss von Douglas Adams jederzeit an. Schon ein dem Spiel unbekanntes Wort hat – in Kombination mit Löchern im Raum-Zeit-Kontinuum und kriegsgeilen Außerirdischen – absurde Konsequenzen: »You have destroyed most of a small galaxy. Please pick your words with greater care.« Auch im Hitchhiker’s Guide geht es darum, die korrekte Konfiguration von Wörtern zu finden, um reibungslos zum Zielknoten eines Netzwerkes zu gelangen. Aber noch viel mehr muss nun der skurrile Humor eines Autors durchdrungen werden. Besonders wenn es darum geht, unbeschadet durch einen Türrahmen zu kommen: »You miss the doorway by a good eighteen inches.« Doch selbst wenn Arthur Dent die richtigen Worte und seine Aspirin rechtzeitig findet, die Welt der interactive fiction muss ab Mitte der 1980er unaufhaltsam einem eleganteren Interface zum Computer Platz machen. Text ist einfach zu »mostly harmless«.

Narratologie vs. Ludologie

›Show, don‘t tell‹ ist das Erfolgsrezept im Point-and-Click-Grafik-Adventure. Literatur in The Secret of Monkey Island (1991) & Co. ist beschränkt auf Dialog beziehungsweise Monolog und dient nun hauptsächlich zwei Funktionen: Erstens gibt sie Hinweise auf die Lösung von Rätseln und zweitens belohnt sie das erfolgreiche Lösen von Rätseln. Klassische Adventure-Autoren, wie Ron Gilbert und Tim Schäfer, sind für ihren Humor berühmt, der wunderbar mit dem Rätsel-Design harmoniert. Ein gelungener Gag (»How appropriate. You fight like a cow!«) ist Grund genug, um die Variablen der Spielwelt zielführend zu konfigurieren. Text als Mittel zur Charakterentwicklung – jenseits der gröbsten Klischees –, so wie es Jane Jensen erfolgreich mit Gabriel Knight (1993) durchgezogen hat, bleibt die Ausnahme oder fällt bei der Zielgruppe durch. Ob Guybrush Threepwood, Dr. Henry Jones oder Larry Laffer, die Spielfigur ist am Ende eine bloße Verlängerung des Cursors. Und ein Stereotyp bietet mehr Freiraum für die Spielerin als ein scharfes Charakterprofil. Der Cybertext-Autor Markku Eskelinen bringt es polemisch auf den Punkt: »If I throw a ball at you I don’t expect you to drop it and wait until it starts telling stories.« Damit beginnt der vorerst größte Konflikt in den internationalen Game Studies: Narratologie vs. Ludologie. FIGHT!

Während in den späten 1980ern und den frühen 1990ern die blassen, introvertierten Kinder in ihren Kellerzimmern von karibischen Inseln und diesen schicken Lederjacken träumen, hängen die coolen Kids in der Arcade ab und spielen ›richtige‹ Spiele. Der einzige Text, den hier alle früher oder später zu lesen bekommen, ist »Game Over«. Wen interessiert es schon, dass es in dem Arcade-Klassiker Donkey Kong (1981) um einen Gorilla geht, der Pauline, die Freundin von Jumpman (erst später: Mario) entführt hat? Computerspiele, soweit die Tautologie, sind Spiele und keine Geschichten. Wie schon beim Text-Adventure ist Literatur ein Gimmick, das bestenfalls einen redundanten Rahmen für Spiel schafft, aber nie selbst Spiel ist. So auch die Argumentation der Ludologen: Computerspiele sind Regel- und Spielsysteme, die keine Narration brauchen, um zu funktionieren. Besonders Puzzlespiele wie Tetris (1984) zeigen das auf zeitlos abstrakt-schöne Weise. Im Gegensatz zu früheren Medienformen – wie der Kulturwissenschaftler Alexander R. Galloway feststellt – müssen Computerspiele ›aktiviert‹ werden: »[W]hat used to be the act of reading is now the act of doing, or just ›the act‹.« Die Narratologie – bequem im literaturwissenschaftlichen Muff eingemummelt – kontert träge mit Jorge Luis Borges und behauptet nicht ganz zu unrecht das Computerspiele doch in etwa wie Der Garten der Pfade, die sich verzweigen (1944) sind. Zu oft spielt dabei jedoch das Missverständnis eine Rolle, bei Programmiersprache handle es sich um die Sprache des Computers. Dabei ist sie eigentlich nur eine Handreichung, eine Metapher für all jene, die zu dumm sind, die ephemeren Abläufe der central processing unit (kurz: CPU) direkt zu begreifen. Computerspiele sind in ihrem Kern elektronisch beschleunigte Zahlenmystik, kein unkompilierter Quelltext, den man bei einem Glas Wein im Ohrensessel genießen kann. Der Dichter Charles Bernstein fasst das kompakt zusammen: »If a typewriter could talk, it would have very little to say […]. But these microchips really blow you away.« [2]
Pac-Txt (Screenshot: Christian Huberts)
Mittlerweile beweisen die Game Studies mehr common sense und machen Kompromisse: Spiele brauchen nicht zwingend eine Geschichte, aber sie können trotzdem eine erzählen, mit Text und dem ganzen Drum und Dran. Literarizität ist als kulturelle Form im Computerspiel etabliert. Niemand käme mehr auf die Idee, sie als Inhalt des Mediums zu streichen – auch wenn die Botschaft des Mediums eine andere ist. Unverbesserliche Spielverderber weisen dennoch auf die Absurdität dieser ungleichen Beziehung hin. Von besonderer konzeptioneller Schönheit ist die Umsetzung von Pac-Man (1980) als Text-Adventure: »You awaken in a large complex, slightly disoriented. Glowing dots hover mouth level near you in every direction.« Pac-Txt (2007) zeigt mit brachialer Einfachheit, was passiert, wenn man den Akt des Spielens in konfigurierbaren Text verwandelt: >eat dot (»You have eaten the glowing dot!«), >forward (»You have moved.«), >eat dot (»You have eaten another glowing dot!«), >forward (»Umph! You walked into a wall.«). Nein, eine (Text-)Datenbank kann die instantanen Prozesse der CPU nicht ersetzen. In den letzten 30 Jahren hat sich jedoch viel getan und die amüsierte Polemik zerbricht an der spielerischen Realität. Spätestens seit Tomb Raider (1996) – so der Medienwissenschaftler Mathias Mertens – wird ebenfalls gespielt, »um zusehen zu können, um die Datenbank zu mobilisieren.« Es gibt kaum ein aktuelles Spiel, das ohne epische Geschichte, worldbuilding, transmedia storytelling und die Dialoge professioneller Autorinnen auskommt. Man hat sich aneinander gewöhnt.

Waffenstillstand

Ein wenig trügt die Waffenruhe zwischen Literatur und Spiel, denn Erzählung findet meist erst dann statt, wenn die Gewehre schweigen und die blutbeschmierten Schwerter wieder in ihren Scheiden stecken. ›Zwischensequenz-Wegdrücker‹ und ›Text-Weiterklicker‹ mögen holprige Begriffe sein, sind aber auch etablierte Charakterisierungen eines verbreiteten Spielertypus. Wenn Computerspiele große Literatur sein wollen und etwas von Bedeutung erzählen möchten, in Ordnung, aber das soll dann bitte nicht stören! Professionelle Spiele-Autorinnen, wie Rhianna Pratchett (ja, die Tochter von Terry), werden zwar PR-wirksam vorgeführt, scheinen es sich aber zur Aufgabe gemacht zu haben, in ihren Spielen nicht aufzufallen. Die Story von Mirror‘s Edge (2008) passt locker auf einen Bierdeckel. Austoben können sich Autoren erst im ›Buch zum Spiel‹, das – vom StarCraft- bis zum Splinter Cell-Franchise – die Science-Fiction- und Fantasy-Regale der Bahnhofsbuchhandlung verstopft. Aber selbst das brillanteste Stück Literatur taugt am Ende nichts, wenn das Computerspiel dahinter nicht gut ist. Die eigentliche Kunst ist, Literatur und Computerspiel so zusammenzubringen, dass am Ende beide Seiten davon profitieren, dass die Narration mehr ist als eine Rechtfertigung, um Nazis zu töten, dass das Spiel mehr ist als ein notwendiges Übel, um seine Geschichte zu erzählen.

Tatsächlich ist vielen Spielen aus dem Mainstream die Symbiose bereits gelungen. Und sie ist um so besser gelungen, je enger Autor und Game-Designer zusammenarbeiten beziehungsweise zusammenfallen. Nicht jede Spielmechanik eignet sich für jede Geschichte. Und nicht alle narrativen Strategien oder Perspektiven eignen sich für ein Computerspiel. Das Rollenspiel-Genre hat es relativ gut getroffen und kann viele Positivbeispiele vorweisen – vor allem wegen der offensichtlichen Nähe zum Pen&Paper-Rollenspiel. So hat das Genre-Meisterwerk Planescape: Torment (1999) nicht nur etwa 1,5 Millionen Textzeilen zu bieten, sondern vollführt auch das Kunststück, diesen Literaturwust in der Datenbank sinnvoll und untrennbar mit der Spielmechanik zu verweben. Das Schicksal des unsterblichen Helden, der nach jedem Tod in eine Welt wiedergeboren wird, in der er bereits in unzähligen Leben Spuren hinterlassen hat, ist eine wunderschöne Analogie auf Computerspiele. Wie in einem Buch liest die Spielerin, mit jedem Schritt in der weiträumigen Spielwelt, über die Vergangenheit ihrer Spielfigur. Das Ego-Shooter-Genre ist schon eher ein Sorgenkind. In den meisten Fällen reicht es, narrativ festzulegen, wer die Bösen sind, damit der Spaß beginnen kann. Die Call of Duty-Serie ballert mit dieser Strategie Hollywood-Blockbuster regelmäßig von ihrem Thron. Deus Ex (2000) erzählt seine Geschichte hingegen größtenteils abseits filmischer Zwischensequenzen über in der Spielwelt verteilte Textdokumente. Zeitungsausschnitte berichten von sozialen Umbrüchen, Briefe geben Zeugnis elterlicher Liebe, Kochrezepte laden zum Backen von chinesischen Brötchen ein und Auszüge aus Gilbert Keith Chestertons The Man Who Was Thursday (1907) werfen Parallelen zur zentralen Verschwörungstheorie des Spiels auf. Aus den Literaturfragmenten setzt sich nach und nach ein dichtes narratives Spieluniversum zusammen. Und am Ende weiß niemand mehr so genau, auf wen man eigentlich noch ohne schlechtes Gewissen ballern kann. Das Action-Rollenspiel Skyrim (2011) treibt das literarische worldbuilding soweit, dass über 300 Bücher mit insgesamt mehreren Tausend Seiten in der gleichnamigen Spielwelt zu finden sind. Die Vorteile liegen auf der Hand: Wer Narration will, kann sich nahezu unbegrenzt mit Spiel-interner Recherche beschäftigen. Wer keinen Bock hat zu lesen, jagt dem nächsten Troll ungestört einen Pfeil in die Kniescheibe. Die perfekte Partnerschaft.

It just ain’t your story

Der Kompromiss stinkt: Bislang ist da ›nur‹ Computerspiel mit Literatur, aber kein Spielen am Computer mit Literarizität. Der Datenbank ist es gleichgültig, womit sie gefüllt wird. Wo es jedoch darum geht, ganz konkret mit Text zu spielen und eine Poetik der CPU zu schaffen, bleibt es bei witzigen Spielereien ohne Tiefgang. The Typing of the Dead (2000) lässt uns durch das schnelle Tippen harmloser Wörter nicht nur Zombies abknallen, sondern bringt uns auch Schreiben nach dem Zehnfingersystem bei. Scribblenauts (2009) ist ein Spiel mit Semiotik und zaubert vom Spieler geschriebene Substantive – zur Lösung diverser Rätsel – in die Spielwelt. Das macht alles Spaß, die Erfüllung einer Autorin ist es hingegen kaum. Dabei beginnen die Kinder, die mit Computerspielen alphabetisiert wurden, gerade erst erwachsen zu werden. Sie verfügen erstmals über die nötige »gaming literacy« [3] – wie der Spieldesigner Eric Zimmerman es nennt –, to game literacy. Leider mag die Industrie weder ludische Experimente noch finanzielles Risiko. Die traurige Erfahrung zeigt, dass sich die meisten Spieler immer noch mit einem einfachen Tapetenwechsel in der Datenbank und einer höheren Zahl am Ende des Spieltitels zufrieden geben. Wer diese Geschichte nicht mag, muss sich eine eigene schreiben.
Today I Die (Screenshot: Christian Huberts)
Sowohl intuitive Werkzeuge als auch offene Vertriebswege stehen mittlerweile fast frei zur Verfügung. Das Ergebnis ist eine florierende, internationale independent gaming-Szene, die weitaus seltener vor Experimenten zurückschreckt. So hat beispielsweise Daniel Benmergui mit Today I Die (2009) ein kurzweiliges Puzzle-Gedicht geschaffen. Dear Esther (2012) von thechineseroom hebt – für einen atmosphärischen Hybriden aus Inselexpedition und Briefroman – gleich eine vollständige, wunderschön gestaltete Hebrideninsel [sic!] aus dem virtuellen Meer. Viele weitere gelungene Beispiele – Braid (2008), The Path (2009), Bastion (2011), Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP (2011), etc. – ließen sich aufzählen. Mit zunehmenden Erfolg und steigender Relevanz, sind allerdings auch die Egos der Szene gewachsen und produzieren zunehmend ebenso massentauglichen wie prätentiösen Kunstkack. Der Vorwurf des arroganten Hipstertums trifft das independent gaming tief ins Mark. Mit ihrem Buch Rise of the Videogame Zinesters (2012) ruft die Game-Designerin Anna Anthropy daher dazu auf, wieder kleine, persönliche Wegwerf-Spiele zu produzieren. Mit Dys4ia (2012), dem spielbaren Erfahrungsbericht ihrer Hormonbehandlung, legt die Transgender-Frau gleich ein eindrückliches Beispiel dafür vor. Zwar entbehrt sie selbst nicht einer unangenehmen Arroganz gegenüber dem ›bösen‹ Mainstream, hat für Laien aber brauchbare Hinweise parat. Besonders Autoren profitieren von ausgereiften, kostenlosen Programmen, die es jedem ermöglichen, literarische Computerspiele zu produzieren. Richtet sich Inform in erster Linie an Freunde der interactive fiction – inklusive einer ›natürlichen‹ Programmiersprache –, lassen sich mit Ren‘Py komplexere visual novels ›schreiben‹. Neues Spielzeug, dass zum Experimentieren in einer eingeschliffenen Beziehung einlädt.

Als im Januar 2007 eine bishōjo-Skizze mit hübschen, aber körperlich behinderten Manga-Mädchen bei 4chan auftaucht, hätte wohl niemand damit gerechnet, dass daraus eine vollwertige, mit Ren‘Py erstellte visual novel entsteht. Kein großer Publisher würde ein solch heißes Eisen – romantische Verwicklungen an einer Sonderschule für Behinderte – auch nur mit der Kneifzange anfassen. Aber Teile der 4chan-Community haben sich in kürzester Zeit unter dem Namen Four Leaf Studios dem Projekt angenommen. Die Fallhöhe war groß, denn das bishōjo game-Genre ist eher Fetisch-fixiert und die Teilnehmer des imageboard sind für ihren pubertären Anarcho-Humor berüchtigt [4]. Doch Katawa Shoujo (2012) – japanisch für ›Krüppelmädchen‹ – ist eine sensible Geschichte über die Normalität von Behinderungen geworden. Mal von den fremdbeschämenden Sex-Szenen abgesehen, stört eigentlich nur der Mangel an Spiel. Ab und zu gilt es eine binäre Entscheidung zu treffen, aber davon abgesehen kommt das beständige Klick, Klick, Klick, Klick, Klick, Klick, Klick der Maus eher dem Umblättern von Buchseiten nahe als dem prozeduralen Charakter eines Computerspiels. Den Autoren der Dating-Romanze hat es nicht an Fleiß und Ambition gefehlt, aber gewiss an Talent und dem Verständnis der besonderen poetischen Ausdrucksmittel des Mediums.

Katawa Shoujo (Screenshot: Four Leaf Studios)

Alexander R. Galloway nennt es den »allegorithm« und der Game-Designer Ian Bogost spricht von »procedural rhetoric« [5]; beide Konzepte laufen darauf hinaus, mit Hilfe algorithmischer Prozesse, überzeugende Aussagen zu treffen. Wer bei einer Partie Monopoly (1935) schon einmal das Gefühl hatte, die Immobilienwirtschaft ist ein moralisch verkommener Geschäftszweig, weiß was gemeint ist. Die Ur-Version The Landlord´s Game (1904) von Elizabeth Magie Phillips sollte mittels ›rhetorischer‹ Spielregen eben genau das zum Ausdruck bringen. Wer als Autor also ein Computerspiel machen will, muss sich mit einer neuen Form digitaler Rhetorik vertraut machen und darüber nachdenken, wie sich literarische Themen und narrative Zusammenhänge durch die Prozesse des Computers repräsentieren lassen. Christine Love ist eine visual novel-Autorin, der genau das gelingt. Ihre Liebesgeschichten [sic!] handeln von der einen Sache, von der Computerspiele immer noch am besten erzählen können: Dem Computer.

Analogue: A Hate Story

Christine Loves übersichtliches, mit Ren‘Py produziertes Werk liest sich schon in den Titeln wie ein Abgesang auf totes Holz und überholte Medienkontexte. Sowohl don’t take it personally, babe, it just ain’t your story (2011) wie auch Analogue: A Hate Story (2012) erzählen von der Zukunft menschlicher Beziehungen – beeinflusst durch Computertechnologie. Brillant ist dabei, wie Love nicht versucht, mit dem Medium Computerspiel etwas zu erzählen, was sich damit nicht gut erzählen lässt: Menschliche Beziehungen. Statt nach literarischen Interface-Metaphern für den Computer zu suchen, macht sie den Computer zur Interface-Metapher für Literatur. In don’t take it personally, babe trifft die Spielerin als Literaturlehrer bedeutsame, binäre Dialog-Entscheidungen gegenüber ihren Schülern. Dabei wird die klassische visual novel stets von einem Facebook-artigen sozialen Netzwerk überlagert, dass der Spielerin parallel Einblick in die privaten Textnachrichten ihrer Schützlinge gibt. Die prozedurale Rhetorik geht auf: Nutzt sie die Meta-Ebene der Statusmeldungen, um die Schüler entsprechend der eigenen Vorstellungen zu manipulieren oder respektiert sie ihre Privatsphäre? Die Schlusspointe des Spiels trifft schließlich überzeugende Aussagen zu sozialer Kommunikation im Zeitalter von Facebook & Co. Christine Love gelingt es, dass die Spieler ihre Erzählung – anders als es der Titel von ihnen verlangt – für einen Moment persönlich nehmen: Sie erwischt sie beim digitalen Voyeurismus.

Digital: A Love Story (Screenshot: Christine Love)

Ihr bisheriges Meisterwerk ist Christine jedoch mit Digital: A Love Story (2010) gelungen. Das mediennostalgische Text-Adventure führt den Spieler zurück an den Anfang. Über ein der Amiga Workbench nachempfundenes Betriebssystem navigiert er durch die Knoten des Bulletin Board System (kurz: BBS) und stattet selbst dem ARPANET einen Kurzbesuch ab. Er durchforstet William Gibson- und Star Trek-Fanboards, liest Textnachrichten, wählt lange Telefonnummern und knackt Codewörter; diesmal ohne die redundante Erzählung eines Dungeons. Der Computer wird zur Literatur. Routing-Probleme werden als Routing-Probleme verpackt, die Literatur – im Sinne von Claus Pias – gestrichen. Der Spieler braucht keine literarische »Übergangswahrscheinlichkeit«, um der spannenden Verschwörungs- und Liebesgeschichte rund um die Anfänge des Internets, Computerviren und künstlichen Intelligenzen auf die Schliche zu kommen. Manchmal muss eine unproduktive Beziehung enden, um produktiv zu wirken. Will und Pat Crowthers Scheidung brachte Literatur und Computerspiel im Text-Adventure ADVENT zusammen. Die Scheidung von Text-Adventure und Literatur bringt nun neue Formen der Literarizität hervor: Digital: A Love Story. Man kann nicht ›für‹ ein Computerspiel schreiben, man muss ein Spiel mit dem Computer schreiben. Wer das als Autor missachtet, produziert entweder schlechte Texte oder schlechte digitale Spiele. Auch die Liebesgeschichte von Computerspiel und Literatur ist also am Ende eine tragische:

»And now we finally have this sorrowful peace;

Machines now boot, network traffic flows across.

But remember who caused the onslaught to cease:

those two impossible lovers suffering ultimate loss.«

Anmerkungen

[1] Wer mehr über die Zusammenhänge von mathematischen Graphen, Erzähltheorie und Adventures erfahren möchte, dem sei der ganze Aufsatz »Adventures Erzählen Graphen« von Claus Pias empfohlen. Zu finden im Reader Neue Medien (2007, transcript, 398-419) herausgegeben von Karin Bruns und Ramón Reichert.

[2] Als Medienwissenschaftler ist es ein bisschen beschämend zuzugeben, aber einer der besten Essays, die je zum Computerspiel geschrieben wurden, stammt von einem Poeten und Literaturwissenschaftler, der obendrein kaum je gespielt hat. Charles Bersteins »Play It Again, Pac-Man« ist zu lesen in The Medium of the Video Game (2001, University of Texas Press, 155-168) herausgegeben von Mark J. P. Wolf.

[3] Mehr über das heiß diskutierte Konzept der »Gaming Literacy« findet sich in dem Essay »Game Design as a Model for Literacy in the Twenty-first Century« von Eric Zimmerman. Der Text ist erschienen im The Video Game Theory Reader 2 (2009, Routledge, 23-31) herausgegeben von Bernard Perron und Mark J. P. Wolf.

[4] »Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down, never gonna run around and desert you…« You have been rick rolled!

[5] Eine ausführliche Definition und Einsatzmöglichkeiten prozeduraler Rhetorik sind zu entdecken in Ian Bogosts Buch Persuasive Games – The Expressive Power of Videogames (2007, The MIT Press).

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Es ist nie zu spät für mehr Normativität und Maskulinität! « These nerds

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Es ist nie zu spät für mehr Normativität und Maskulinität!

Sep 6

Geschrieben von balkantoni

Freunde, wir müssen eine Sache klären: Bei “Spelunky“, “Mario” oder “Donkey Kong” Sexismus festzustellen macht keinen zum aufgeklärten Akademiker, sondern vielmehr zum maskulinitätsüberforderten Milchbrötchen. Denn, seht ihr, es gibt einen konkreten Grund für das Motiv der zu rettenden Frau, der infamen “Damsel in Distress”: Glorifikation der Maskulinität. Und von dieser kann es gar nicht genug geben. Im Ernst.

Es gibt wenige Vorstellungen, die zugleich politisch unsympa und dennoch total cool sein können, doch die Imagination vom Mann als Retter aus physischer Notlage ist eine davon. Sie ist selbstredend sexistisch: Sobald die Narration eines Computerspiels die Rettung einer Frau durch einen Mann notwendig macht, wird das physische Ungleichgewicht zwischen den Geschlechternzum männlichen Distinktionsmerkmal, obwohl solche Narrationen nur noch in Gesellschaften zustande kommen, bei welchen dieses Ungleichgewicht obsolet ist und dessen Manifestationen zumeist mit Gewaltfällen einhergehen.

Und trotzdem bleibt die Fantasie cool, denn durch sie berichten Männer von sich. Sie berichten von ihrer naiven Sehnsucht nach Heroismus und von ihrem Spaß an Gewalt, Rauheit und Physis. Sie verdeutlichen, dass ein Beharren auf dem Maskulinen selbstzweckhaft ist – und somit wenn nicht gleich Kunst, so zumindest künstlich genug ist, um tatsächliche Kunst entstehen zu lassen. Der männliche Körper wird zugleich bedrohlich und heilbringend gezeichnet – eine Ambivalenz, die überfordern kann. Frauen existieren nur, um als körperlich Unterlegene ex negativo die Fantasie überhaupt erst möglich zu machen. Totale Androzentik. Testo will have its way, so deal with it.

And deal with it you must: Der Nachweis nämlich, dass autoerotische, imaginierte Männlichkeiten tatsächlich mit der gesellschaftlichen Diskriminierung von Frauen (as in: Gewalt gegen sie, niedrigere Löhne, beruflicher Niedergang durch Schwangerschaft etc…) korreliert, scheint nur problemlos gegeben, wenn einen Empörung verzweifelt macht und man erhebliche Probleme mit Ambivalenzen hat – er ist es aber keineswegs. Es exitiert diesbezüglich keine Empirie und erst Recht keine, die dafür sorgen würde, dass Menschen aufhören, sich beim Kreuzheben zu gefallen. Nichts wird die Selbstversunkenheit beenden. Der Körper ist nun mal da und irgendwie muss man ihm Herr werden.

Und mal ehrlich: Das Weibsvolk liebt es.

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Interview: Sind Games sexistisch und Gamer frauenfeindlich? - Digitale-Spielwiese.org

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Ich habe mit dem Journalisten Niklas Golitschek ein spannendes Interview für einen Beitrag zum Thema “Games und Sexismus” gehabt, das ich euch gerne in voller Länge präsentiere. Das ist ein Reizthema, aber Games sind da weiter als andere Mediengattungen. Ich werde mich auch mal dem Thema Rassismus und Klischees in Games widmen und das vergleichen mit anderen Medien.

Im Casual-Gaming kommt  es des Öfteren zu sexistischen Beleidigungen gegenüber weiblichen Mitspieler. Was sind die Gründe dafür?

Ich glaube das ist ein grundsätzliches Problem des Internets. In Social-Networks oder Foren gibt es seit es das Internet gibt die Problematik mit den „Trollen“ und da es im Internet eine gewisse Anonymität gibt, was im Grunde ja auch gut ist, kommt es auch vor, dass in Kommentaren persönlich verletzt wird. Da hat man schnell eine Strategie dagegen entwickelt, nämlich die „Netiquette“. Das heißt: „Wie verhalte ich mich im Netz“ damit ich niemanden beleidige und was passiert, wenn ich das tue .Und ich glaube Gamer sind nicht sexistischer als andere Gruppen – im Gegenteil. Ich glaube bei Gamern ist die Offenheit sogar größer.

Wenn solche Verstoße in der Liga passieren, wie gehen sie dagegen vor?

Wir verfolgen solche Verstöße rigoros. Die User werden abgemahnt, sie werden bestraft und es gibt auch einen Selbstreinigungsprozess innerhalb der Community. Wenn ein Spieler jemanden beleidigt- sei es rassistisch oder frauenfeindlich -  dann achten auch die Mitspieler darauf. Dann schalten sich die Administratoren ein und der Spieler wird abgemahnt oder gesperrt. Da ist die Community selbst sehr, sehr streng. Genauso wie mit dem Cheaten.  Es gibt eine Selbstregulation durch die Community. Wo diese Selbstregulation nicht reicht, da schreiten wir ein; dazu sind wir auch juristisch verpflichtet.

Wie sollen betroffene Personen mit solchen Beleidigungen umgehen?

Das Internet ist ein geschützter Bereich. Wie in jeder sozialen Gruppe hat es eine eigene Sprache [„Leedsprache“]. Auf nahezu jeder Website, sei es das Heise-Forum oder Spiegel-Online, gibt es Beleidigungen und Häme. Das ist eben das Internet und man darf das nicht persönlich nehmen. Es ist denke ich sehr wichtig die Betroffenen so stark zu machen, dass sie das auch erkennen. Dies gehört auch zum Thema Medienkompetenz. Wenn es jedoch persönlich wird ist es jedoch die Aufgabe der Betreiber, das Fehlverhalten zu bestrafen.

Gib es auch positive Fälle, in denen Frauen besser behandelt werden?

Ja. Die ESL ist beispielsweise überwiegend von Männern dominiert. Wir reden hier über eine Altersgruppe von 16-25 Jahren. Die jüngeren Spieler befinden sich noch in der Pubertät. Für sie spielt Sex und das andere Geschlecht natürlich eine sehr wichtige Rolle. In der Community werden Frauen dadurch oftmals bevorzugt behandelt. Das ist nicht negativ. Es kommt vor, dass die Spielerinnen dann angehimmelt werden und viele Kommentare in ihre Gästebücher bekommen. Man kann sagen sie werden angeflirtet. Einige der Mädchen wissen das zu schätzen, wobei es andere wiederum nervt. Aber das ist normal in dieser Zeit.

Also sind die weiblichen Spieler durchaus auch in der männlichen Szene aktzeptiert?

Frauen haben es in dieser Branche leider schwerer. Vor allem die professionellen Spielerinnen müssen sich beweisen. Es gibt gewisse Vorbehalte gegenüber Spielerinnen. Das hat damit zu tun, dass der eSport und das Gaming, wenn es lebensstil-prägend ist, dazu tendiert die Anderen auszugrenzen. Gaming ist eher ein Jungenhobby, weshalb bei vielen Frauen erst einmal als skurril wahrgenommen werden; vor allem im Shooter-Bereich. Dort spielen weniger Mädchen, aber dennoch gibt es Spielerinnen, die in diesem Genre aktiv sind. Diese haben es nicht schwerer als andere Männer, aber sie müssen sich durchsetzen; auch gegen die Vorbehalte. Aber das ist nicht ungewöhnlich. Es gibt Beispiele, in denen sich Frauen bereits in der Männerszene etablieren konnten, da sie sich nicht haben unterkriegen lassen.
Diesen Prozess wollen wir in der ESL allen Spielerinnen ermöglichen und haben deshalb eine Frauen-Sektion eröffnet, in der die Spielerinnen unter sich sind und die Umgebung kennenlernen können. Wir möchten ihnen damit die Angst nehmen und ihnen einen geschützten Bereich bieten.

Der eSport ist in dieser Hinsicht auch viel weiter als andere Gaming-Communities. Der eSport speziell hat jedoch weniger Probleme mit der Vermischung der Geschlechter, da es den Frauen freisteht, ob sie untereinander oder aber auch mit Männern spielen wollen. In klassischen Sportvereinen ist diese Trennung heute noch wesentlich strikter als im Gaming-Bereich.
In dieser Hinsicht sind wir moderner als andere Mediengattungen, wie zum Beispiel die Filmindustrie. Denn was diese teilweise in Filmen für Frauenbilder transportiert wird, entspricht wesentlich mehr der Frau als Sexsymbol. Zwar gibt es auch Heldinnen wie Lara Croft, die den weiblichen Indiana Jones darstellt. Doch die Bond-Girls stellen meist nur Sexsymbole dar – und das sind sie ja auch für ihn. Ein modernes Frauenbild wird in Hollywood aber nur selten überliefert.

Die Zahl der Frauen, die sich auch MMORPGs widmen und sich für Videospiele interessieren, steigt. Woher kommt der Trend? Durchlaufen Videospiele momentan die gleiche Phase wie einst der Fußball?

Videospiele als Ganzes werden schon lange von Frauen in einem großen Umfang genutzt. Früher war das Internet rein männlich dominiert. Mittlerweile ist der Anteil, wie in der Bevölkerung auch, fifty-fifty. „Die Sims“ zum Beispiel ist das erfolgreichste Videospiel aller Zeiten und nicht nur Frauen spielen es. Hier sind 52 Prozent weiblich und 48 Prozent männlich. Dort haben wir schon diese Gleichverteilung. Das zeigt, dass Frauen mittlerweile genauso Videospiele spielen, wie Männer auch. Jedoch sind die Titel unterschiedlich verteilt. In World of WarCraft liegt der Frauenanteil inzwischen auch bei über 50 Prozent, wohingegen Shooter weniger Frauen ansprechen. Das liegt am Thema: Denn Taktik-Shooter sind eher ein männliches Thema und sie sind auch stärker wettbewerbsorientiert. Wir leben in einer Gesellschaft, in der Frauen nicht so wettbewerbsorientiert wie Männer erzogen werden. Ich behaupte nicht, dass das genetisch bedingt ist, sondern von den sozialen Rollen abhängt. In dieser Gesellschaft werden Frauen nicht so stark auf Wettbewerb getrimmt wie Männer. Aus diesem Grund sind in Deutschland viel weniger Frauen in Führungspositionen, als in anderen Ländern. Denn Frauen werden mehr auf die sozialen Berufe vorbereitet. Das hört sich zwar klischeehaft an, aber es ist so; das ist eine Erziehungsgeschichte und deswegen finden Frauen es weniger interessant eSport zu praktizieren. Allerdings ist der Zuschaueranteil von Frauen wesentlich höher als der aktiv spielenden. Dort ist auch die Parallele zum Fußball. Fußball ist eine klar männlich dominierte Sportart – und schon ewig gewesen. Frauenfußball war in Deutschland sogar eine Zeit lang verboten! Inzwischen stellt sich der Fußball jedoch wesentlich breiter auf. Während früher hauptsächlich die „Randalierer“ ins Stadion gingen, ist der wöchentliche Gang ins Stadion heute eher eine Familiensache. Dieser Trend ist seit der WM 2006 in Deutschland stark zu beobachten. Dort gehen auch die Mädchen mit. Frauen spielen nicht mehr als früher, aber gucken häufiger zu und feiern auch mit. Das gleiche Phänomen findet man bereits heute im eSport, wenn auch in abgeschwächter Form. Die Offline-Veranstaltung werden immer mehr gemischt, da die Männer auch ihre Freundinnen mitbringen und diese sich auch für diese Veranstaltung interessieren. Bei ESL TV beispielsweise liegt die Anzahl der weiblichen Zuschauer bei knapp 20 Prozent – und das ist unglaublich viel. Denn der aktive Anteil liegt bei gerade einmal 5 Prozent.

Aber auch in Shootern wie eben „Counter-Strike“ findet sich ein steigender Frauenanteil. Woher kommt dieser Trend, auch wenn Frauen nicht so auf Erfolg getrimmt sind?

Das liegt daran, dass immer mehr Frauen auch Games spielen, egal welches Genre. Videospiele sind inzwischen in der Mitte der Gesellschaft angekommen. Mittlerweile gibt es Manager und Bundesminister, die Shooter spielen und sich dazu bekennen. Das heißt: Die Leute, die mit Shootern aufwachsen werden älter, Väter und Großväter, und immer mehr Frauen lernen auch die Vielzahl der Videospiele kennen. Das sind nicht nur Casual-Games, sondern eben auch eher die „Szene-Games“. Frauen haben dadurch auch mehr Spaß an den anspruchsvolleren Spielen und nicht nur den einfachen Titeln. Manche Bereiche wachsen dadurch mehr und andere weniger. Ich persönlich glaube, dass die Shooter nie ein fifty-fifty-Verhältnis erreichen werden. Denn bislang ist in jeder Sportart, in der gekämpft wurde, der Frauenanteil geringer geblieben – egal ob Karate oder Judo. Ein gutes Beispiel dafür ist auch Paintball. Es gibt Frauen, die sich dafür interessieren, dennoch ist der Männeranteil wesentlich höher. Solange die Gesellschaft so bleibt, wie sie ist und die Frauen nicht auf Wettkampf getrimmt werden, glaube ich nicht, dass Frauen in Shootern den gleichen Anteil erreichen werden. Dennoch wird er weiter steigen.

Wie sehen sie die zukünftige Entwicklung für die weibliche Casual- und Profiszene? Werden Gamerinnen mehr Akzeptanz erlangen oder den Männern sogar gleichgestellt werden?

Ich glaube der eSport ist in dieser Hinsicht sogar besser aufgestellt als beispielsweise der Fußball. Denn hier dürfen Frauen sogar bei den Männern mitmachen, sofern sie gut genug sind, und innerhalb der Turniere mitspielen. Es gab schon den Fall, dass ein reines Frauenteam an der ESL Pro Series, vergleichbar mit der Bundesliga im Fußball, teilnahm. In einem anderen Team dieser Liga gab es auch eine Frau unter den Männern, da sie mit ihnen mithalten konnte. Es gibt also nicht die Vorschrift, dass keine Frauen mitspielen dürfen. In dieser Hinsicht sind wir fortschrittlicher. Im eSport zählt nur die Leistung. Und wer sich behaupten kann ist da und wird auch von der Community akzeptiert; seien es nun Männer oder Frauen. Kommerziell betrachtet können Frauen also genau so von den Turnieren und Ligen profitieren, wie die Männer. Signifikante Unterschiede gibt es wie im Fußball nicht.

Es ist auch ein weiterer Trend im eSport zu beobachten: Die Shooter verlieren immer mehr an Bedeutung. Am beliebtesten sind momentan die beiden Strategiespiele „StarCraft II“ und „League of Legends“. In League of Legends ist der Frauenanteil sehr viel höher als in „Counter-Strike“; sowohl bei den Spielerinnen, als auch bei den Zuschauerinnen. Das liegt auch am Thema: Es ist sehr viel bunter und es ist nicht so kampfbetont, da es Moba [Multiplayer online battle arena] ist. Dennoch gibt es Figuren, die ihre Eigenarten und spezielle Fähigkeiten haben und das reizt Frauen.

Warum hat die Fußballsimulation FIFA zwar sehr hohe Verkaufszahlen, aber nur so ein kleines Publikum?

Ich finde es schade, dass Zuschauer sich für Sporttitel weniger stark interessieren. Denn im eSport sollte eine große Auswahl an unterschiedlichen Titeln vorhanden sein. Es ist jedoch so, dass FIFA für Spieler sehr viel spannender ist, als für die Zuschauer. In den kommenden Versionen werden mehr zuschauerfreundliche Elemente in das Spiel eingebracht werden. Das Problem ist, dass die Simulation der Realität den Zuschauer nicht so sehr reizt. Im eSport werden diese Zuschauerelemente jedoch immer wichtiger. Das belegen uns auch die Zuschauerzahlen. Die Beobachter wollen von den Bildern verzaubert werden. Sie wollen etwas Ungewöhnliches sehen. StarCraft oder League of Legends sind andere Welten. Es sind kräftige, dramaturgisch spannende Welten, die mit der Realität nichts zu tun haben. FIFA hingegen ist zwar ein anspruchsvolles Spiel. Als visuelles Erlebnis hat man allerdings eine digitalen Entsprechung des klassischen Fußballs. Da sagen sich die Leute: „Warum soll ich mir das anschauen?!“

Es gab und gibt eine sehr stabile und  treue Community in FIFA. Aber der Titel ist abgeschlagen, weil in anderen Spielen dieser Zuschauereffekt angezogen hat.
Vor allem im Zuschauerbereich verzeichnen Videospiele ein exponentielles Wachstum. Bei ESL TV verzeichneten wir im letzten Jahr ein Wachstum von 300 Prozent! Und dort wird in Zukunft die Musik spielen. FIFA hat zudem bisher auch nur sehr wenige Frauen interessiert.
Das gleiche Phänomen erleben wir auch in Rennspielen wie „Need for Speed“ oder „Live for Speed“. Die Spiele machen Spaß, sind aber eben langweilig anzuschauen und können mit den momentanen Trends nicht mithalten. Die Zuschauerzahlen sind katastrophal. In Realität sind diese Sportarten viel interessanter. Der Zuschauer sieht Crashs und spannende Überholmanöver – mit realen Personen. Das hat eine ganz andere Dramaturgie. Diese Dramaturgie, von denen der eSport lebt, fehlt in Simulationen. Diese bieten nur Spiele, die nicht der Realität entsprechen. Sie sind spannend anzuschauen.

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Milkers: The Strange and Wonderful World of Babyz Pageantry from 1UP.com

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arenting is really hard. One day, you’re just some dude who likes to play videogames until the wee hours of the morning, and the next — well, you’re some dad who likes to play videogames until the wee hours of the morning. Dealing with the horror of realizing a tiny person’s life is in your hands can sometimes feel overwhelming, but there’s a sense of freedom in playing a great game with friends during those few quiet hours.

So, when I set out to write a story about a videogame community, the last thing I expected to find were people escaping to a virtual universe of child rearing, baby modding, and ranked beauty pageants. But as strange as it sounds, it’s also one of the most fascinating groups of gamers I’ve ever met.

During the late nineties, PF Magic (read Pure Fu**ing Magic) had already found success with its animal-care simulator, Petz. The studio would go on to produce a number of pet fostering games, all ending their titles with an ubiquitous “z,” but only 1999’s Babyz replaced the animals with virtual children. Like many videogames both before and after, a loyal community of Babyz followers quickly sprouted up online.

“I always liked babies. I’ve always wanted one of my own, I’ve just never got there.”

Jen is a 27-year-old nanny living in North East England. She has the kind of comforting voice that makes American boys like me think of Mary Poppins. Despite a professional life where dealing with offspring is the norm, virtual children and the Babyz community have remained a constant in Jen’s free-time for well over a decade.

“I’ve been in the Babyz community since I was 17, but I’ve actually been playing the game since 1999,” said Jen. “I mean, it was just nice to be able to look after your own baby. You know, it was just nice to know you had a baby there. You could feed it, dress it, put it to sleep, play with toys, and stuff like that. But I think I’ve met so many people now, I can’t leave. I have friends all over the world because of this game.”

The original Babyz.net community forums were shuttered a couple years after the game’s release, but that didn’t thwart its dedicated followers from moving the conversation to unofficial chat boards.

Around mid-2006, Jen and her best friend were fed-up with the technical limitations of the prominent Babyz forum; a page with all the user-friendliness of an image board. They decided to start their own group where aficionados could trade, or “adopt,” new babyz. Milk, and its sincere group of members known as Milkers, were born.

Today, the Milk boards regularly receive over 100,000 posts annually from a demographic that’s almost universally female. While the average member is between the ages of 13-25, you can find active Milkers in their sixties still posting away. My own first attempt to join the message board was denied because, as Jen tells me, “We were wondering why this 32-year-old guy was joining.” Probably a fair sentiment.

“We pride ourselves on our creativity,” says Lacey, a 22-year-old Milker from Florida.

She’s sharing her desktop screen with me via Skype, introducing me to the world of “hexing,” or modding the actual program files within Babyz. As we talk intently about altering the hair color of an infant made of pixels, she occasionally laughs uncomfortably. I have a hard time telling if she’s just nervous about the interview, or if she’s readily aware of the absurdity of what we’re discussing.

But inherent weirdness aside, I’m taken aback by the dedication of these women; nurturing women like Lacey who started playing the game when she was just 10-years-old.

“I know it’s just pixels, but you have to care for [the baby]. It crawls around, you change its diaper. And it seemed different than other games, in that — well it had more life to it, I guess,” said Lacey. “It probably seems weird; all my friends think it is [laughs]. I had a boyfriend who thought they were really weird.”

While hardly anyone familiar with videogames would double-take at the notion of modding a game like Skyrim, changing hexadecimal values in the programming of an obscure 1999 game about babies is a bit out of the norm. Hexing has allowed Milkers like Lacey to create entirely original babyz characters with new hair-styles, clothes, and even toys. Modding, beyond the camaraderie of the community, has kept Babyz alive all these years.

But even more amazing: this was all started by a woman named Carolyn, who’s now in her sixties.

“I don’t know how it happened, but she basically managed to discover hexing. I don’t know how she managed it. But she managed it,” said Jen. Hexing is no easy task, either. I tried to make my own baby, but it just looked like a deformed clown.

As hexing grew more commonplace, the community needed a way to keep the conversation going. So like a virtual Toddlers and Tiaras, the women started to hold their own beauty pageants. Hexed babies, or “Hexys,” are evaluated by the pageant’s host, and the top five entrants receive Milk Points. The points can be used to adopt new custom, hexed babyz. Yes, the Milkers have created their own economy.

It’s easy to write Milkers off as some strange group of women obsessed with an admittedly tired PC game, but in a very real sense, they’re no different than the rest of us. How weird does it seem to an outsider when people find fellowship in shooting aliens in the head, or mowing down some foreign army? Ultimately, we’re all a bit weird, us gamers. So, we actively seek out understanding from like-minded people.

Milkers have managed to mount an obscure task — to keep a game alive that, in the words of its community, was “abandoned” by its developer; even if that means holding virtual baby beauty pageants.

Yes, it’s weird. But it’s also wonderful.

Matt Clark

Sometimes, Matt Clark wishes his real-life kids had a volume slider. Follow him on Twitter.

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