Ludo-narrative Dissonance

Ludo-narrative Dissonance was something I struggled to understand for a very long time. I don't know if it was the multiple explanations or what was used to explain it or how people explained it, but I just couldn't get my head around it. I needed a clear, precise explanation from somebody and Hocking's analysis of Bioshock just didn't do it for me.
However, the analysis combined with my friend Jackson's explanation really helped me finally get it. I had gotten confused with narrative and story, the character and gameplay etc, and there were all these strange things muddled up in my head and I was trying to make sense of it all.

I feel as though any of the Telltale games or games in which you decide what the player does and the story changes depending on what you choose are examples on ludo-narrative cohesion. This is due to the fact that, although the whole story itself is not necessarily fully affected, the narrative of the story is what you build through the actions you choose and certain events happen from those actions. In these cases, the player is usually presented with two different points of view but the games could also be examples of ludo-narrative dissonance as it is the player who decides which option to go with, despite possible reasoning and past choices. I think it is mostly the former as the story changes depending on what the player chooses and that is by design, but it depends on how one looks at it.

Player choices influences the story paths and outcomes,
The Walking Dead

Gender and Intersectionality

John Berger's episode 2  of "Ways of Seeing"  talks about how women are usually depicted as such for the pleasures of men starting that "men dream of women [and] women dream of being dreamt of." In the video, Berger talks about how women dress how they do and look how they do due to the scrutiny of men, and themselves, who ultimately decide if a woman is beautiful, and the prize? That the woman, herself is "won." He states that women are taught or persuaded, from early childhood, that how they appear to others, "and particularly [to] men" is of "crucial importance for what is normally thought of as the success of her life."

It has inspired me to think of a scene in Heavy Rain in which Madison dances on a platform in a nightclub in order to win the affection of Paco Mendez,  the owner, who she needs to interrogate. She has to do this due to the fact that Mendez would not have given her any time of day otherwise. She unbuttons her blouse, tears her skirt shorter, messes up her hair and applies more make up in hope that she would catch Mendez's eye. This suggests the same theme of what Berger had been saying in his video; Madison displays more skin to be judged by Mendez. The player, in this section needs to correctly time and press each button in order for Madison to dance well, and if she completes this, then her aesthetic and sexual nature would win Mendez's attention and affection. Each girl who dances, on platforms or otherwise, are being judged and assessed by Mendez, and as the prize he takes them up to  his office.

Berger's video has been structured well and raises good points in a good manner, and therefore I personally found it easier to watch. His reasoning was interesting and well thought out and didn't contain as many subjective statements and leading suggestions as some other videos or papers that are around to do with this topic, therefore I found the whole thing more reasonable. However, there are some phrases I would not agree with such as "women are taught or persuaded that how they appear to others and particularly how they appear to men is of crucial importance for what is normally thought of as success of her life." Although engaging, I feel like this is less true in society at this stage, though not entirely wrong. This still plays a large part in most women's lives, and women are still aware of their body and how others view it, and how men view it but I find that it is not as significant as it may have been. Many women are of the stance that they wear make up and dress how they do because they want to, but perhaps that's stemmed from something else, but perhaps not, but even so I still feel as though the particularly men part is less significant.

Madison dances to impress Paco Mendez,
Heavy Rain

As for Peggy McIntosh's White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Perona/Account of Come to See Correspondences through Work in Women's Studies... I actually find this paper particularly difficult to read due to how subjective the whole thing is. I'm all for debates and new ideas and this may have been an interesting read had the paper not included such leading phrases such as "I think many of us know how obnoxious this attitude can be in men" and what has come across like very narrow minded ideas. I don't deny that her ideas have basis and can be justified, however she does not do a good job in doing these things.
In her paper, McIntosh suggests that all men are power hungry and deny that they have any privileges just for being male. She also mentions that "[her] schooling gave [her] no training in seeing [herself] as an oppressor" but surely that is right and should be the case. Perhaps it's the wording but in my opinion, schools should not be telling or "training" children to think that they are the oppressors. Imagine having that told to you as a child! Another point on the same subject she raises is that she was not taught that she was an "unfairly advantaged person, or as a participant in a damaged culture" but they were. Schools and the education systems may not use that particular phrasing (as is right) but for every oppressed there is an oppressor, and that is taught. Schools teach about slavery and about the women's rights and in those subjects, there are both oppressors and the oppressed.
McIntosh brings up many points I disagree with, like when she talks about "whites [being] taught to think of their lives as morally neutral." It is true that the history that is taught is subject to who is teaching and the curriculum and where it is taught, but I'm sure many of the people who are taught about history understand what each side has done and what has happened to them and in society nowadays, I do not think that this applies.
Some of the examples McIntosh lists which are "conditions which [she thinks in her] case attach somewhere more to skin-color privilege" brings across her points, especially those to do with harassment and fear, however most of her examples mostly has nothing to do with skin-colour privilege, especially in today's society, and are not affected by what colour skin one may have.
The way McIntosh writes about "privilege" and her examples seem very pretentious and one-sided, and a good paper for me suggests both sides, even if one disagrees with it or with at least less suggestive phrases. This paper dates back to 1986, which is just 20 years ago now. While I understand this paper is still relevant as it has suggestions of issues that may have been brought to light 20 years ago, I do not think that it is a good paper to completely educate and influence oneself with in the times and society we live in now, especially with the way it has been written. It is however, one to get someone thinking.

Booker DeWitt,
Bioshock

Due to the fact that I do not play that many games, it is rather difficult for me to go into any depth really to do with this subject however, there are noticeably more protagonists in video games who are white and male, like Ethan from Heavy Rain, Joel in The Last of Us and Booker in Bioshock: Infinite to name just a few, but there are also an increasing number of female protagonists.

Ethan Mars,
Heavy Rain

Joel,
The Last of Us

The Seven Basic Plots (Spoilers)

The idea of the Seven Basic Plots is that that each story or game follows the guidelines of one of the following:

Classic Dr. Robotnik

Overcoming Evil/Monster
Any of the Sonic the Hedgehogs feature Sonic, the protagonist travelling through many worlds, levels and stages ultimately trying to defeat the antagonist, Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik. There are many other characters, like Sonic's sidekick, Tails who aid him along the way. It is a platform game where you control a character and collect Rings along the way, allowing extra lives or transformations to help travel through each stage. In later games, these can be used as currency, restoring health or improving statistics.
Robotnik's aim is to rule the planet and to do this, he needs to defeat Sonic, who aims to overcome and thwart Robotnik's plans to save the world from this, and various other threats.

Rags to Riches
At the beginning of Skyrim, you create your character by customising the looks and the race. When you actually first start the game, you're placed in a moving carriage along with other Prisoners heading for execution. You are lead up to the block where the execution takes place and a dragon disrupts the event, causing a distraction and a chance for you to flee. After doing so, a new life is started and you discover that you are the Dovakiin, destined to save the world and slay the dragons. To do this however, you must complete many quests along the way, which is why this story fits the Rags and Riches plot; you start off nearly facing your death, only to become that who prophecies have spoken of.

Voyage and Return
(The Longest Journey/Dreamfall: The Longest Journey/Dreamfall Chapters:The Longest Journey)
In Dreamfall: The Longest Journey, the player controls 4 characters in different worlds, however the events that occur to each character happens in chronological order. What happens in another world affects that of the original one that the player starts in, and I believe one travels between worlds, this is why I think it fits in Voyage and Return plot.

Super Mario Bros.

The Quest

Mario is a game that everyone knows and loves. The Italian plumber travels through Mushroom Kingdom, usually on a mission to rescue Princess Peach from Bowser, a Koopa Villian. This suggests a hint from Overcoming Evil/Monster as Mario needs to defeat Bowser, or other enemies from the Koopa species.

Tragedy
To The Moon is a role-playing adventure game void of battle systems, inventory or party systems. In the game you play as either Dr. Eva Rosalene or Dr. Niel Watts and aim to fulfill Johnny Wyles' dream of travelling to the moon, before he dies. The aim is to go back into his memories and insert a desire to go to the moon at a young age and therefore can live a full life without any regrets. However this doesn't happen so the two characters have to explore many of his memories, discovering other good and bad events of his life.

Comedy
In Portal, you are trapped in a testing facility and your goal is to complete various tests set by a robot named GLaDOS. Due to this, it can also fit into The Quest and Overcoming Evil/Monster plots. I put this under the Comedy plot due to GLaDOS' commentary throughout the game, and also Wheatley's contribution in Portal 2. They add comedic value to the otherwise possibly dark nature of the game. (Someone trapped and being used as a test subject.) GLaDOS makes snide comments about each section and sometimes actions which one would find funny.

Rebirth

Bigby Wolf is the main protagonist of the point-and-click adventure game The Wolf Among Us by Telltale Games. In the Fables universe, Bigby Wolf is the Big Bad Wolf, a classic bad guy, however in this game he is the Town's Sheriff. This game works based on the decisions you make while playing as Bigby, this means that you are ultimately in control of whether or not Bigby becomes better than the stories. This also means that The Wolf Among Us may not follow the Rebirth Plot as closely as it can do, due to the player's decisions.

Bigby Wolf

Bigby Wolf

Important Characters Throughout the Decades

1970s
Before the 1970s, there weren't many characters in games. In the 1960s, most of the games had environments to do with space. In the 1970s, Highnoon, Pong and Space Invaders came out. Two of these games featured much more interaction between the player and something in the game; Highnoon features a showdown between the player and Black Bart, set in the Wild West. Pong was one of the first video games to reach mainstream popularity, however Space Invaders was one of the earliest shooting games becoming one of the forerunners of modern video gaming and helping expand the video game industry. It has been the inspiration for other video games, being re-released on many platforms and having several sequels.

1980s
The 1980s introduced many of the games we know and love today, for example. Pac-Man and Super Mario Brothers, as well as having released Castle Wolfenstein which is considered to be the first game that had a World War 2 setting, popularising this setting across future games. Super Mario Bros. is a platform game which has had many sequels and remakes since then. The player controls Mario, or his brother Luigi, as he travels through Mushroom Kingdom. This game popularised the side-scrolling platform genre, selling tens of millions over 3 decade and has been released on practically every one of Nintendo's gaming consoles.

1990s
Since being released in 1992, Mortal Kombat has been released on nearly every video game platform. This arcade fighting game became a best selling game and is still one of the most popular fighting games in this genre's history, creating many sequels and spin-off games. When this game was released it caused a lot of controversy due to the inclusion of realistic violence and gore.
This game introduced age-specific content ratings for games.

2000s
The Sims is a life simulation video game series which has become the best-selling video game series of all time. In The Sims series, the player creates characters in a sandbox game mode which lacks defined goals and places them in houses and directs their moods and tries to satisfy their needs and desires, if the player chooses. Players can build houses as well as choose an already built home. There are many expansion packs released with every main Sims game, adding to what the player can do with their Sims. The Sims has been largely successful, having been released on many platforms and with numerous expansion packs and they are now on their forth "set" of The Sims franchise.

2010+
At the moment, it is difficult to see which games will have a significant impact in future games. The more popular games have been Minecraft, and things like Hotline Miami and other indie-esque games on platforms such as Steam. There are an abundance of games on platforms such as these, ranging from indie games such as To The Moon, and more detailed games such as Skyrim and Shadow of Mordor.


Ralphbaer.com, (2015). [online] Available at: http://www.ralphbaer.com/video_game_history.htm [Accessed 13 Nov. 2015].

Caillois' Classification Grid

League of Legends
League of Legends is a free-to-play multiplayer online battle arena game, which has gained popularity progressively since its release in 2009. It has been played competitively for a while and is currently on their 5th World Championship. Each side has 5 players, each relying on their skill, teamwork and organisation in order to destroy the enemy nexus and bring victory to their team. As well as the competitive championships outside of the everyday game play, there is an element of competition as there are specific 'ladders' you can play, win and rank up in. This isn't for everyone, so there are casual games too. 

Hearthstone
Although having a certain amount of skill and knowledge increases a player's likelihood to win, there is an element of chance in a game of Hearthstone. Each player creates a deck of 30 cards which they feel would help them win, putting in cards they would know would be good against certain things or other cards. This is where the knowledge is applied, knowing how and when to use the cards which are drawn depending on which class the opponent is and what has been used already and so to determine what else can be used in the future. The chance factor appears every turn in this game. All the cards are randomised and drawn separately, and there are cards which would do a set amount of damage to either the player or a minion on the board, as well as other events based on chance.

Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy as a whole is a media franchise which has grown into several different types of games on many platforms. I would like to use Final Fantasy XIII in this specific example. Final Fantasy XIII is the thirteenth installment of the series and is a role-playing video game. The game is set in a fictional universe with fictional places and people, however most of the mechanics and looks of the characters in the game are relevant to our ordinary views of the world. What is different and captivating about the game is that the player can relate to the characters, and the game is able to satisfy the want for them to be extraordinary but not necessarily unusual. This way, the player doesn't feel too out of place whilst playing the game and is able to immerse in it.

Damned

Even though the graphics in this game are not aesthetically pleasing, this game still engages the player. Damned is a first person survival game. With the dark atmosphere, it is up to the player whether or not they would like to surround themselves with the similar lighting. During this game, the player has to attempt to escape from an area, without being caught and killed by the monster, which cannot be killed. If you are around the monster for too long, the screen itself starts to distort and there would be static, both sound and visually, this has the potential to frighten the player and linger on in real life.

The Stanley Parable
The Stanley Parable is an interactive storytelling video game. The player guides Stanley, the game's main protagonist, through a surreal environment with no combat or any action based sequences using the first person perspective. During this, the player's movements and decisions are constantly narrated. The narrator says what Stanley would do next but the player can choose whether or not to follow, or ignore what he is saying and choose a different path. The narrator then also comments on this decision. There are many different endings to the game, and the narrator decides when to restart the game. The office environment in which the player is placed looks like any office, but what makes it more surreal is having a voice narrate the things you choose to do, and also the things that may be discovered during the time in the game due to the decisions which are made.