15/10/12 Behind the game story

15/10/12

Chris Brindle and Patrick Sweeting
Task: find the meaning behind the stories in games

Behind Red Faction

Red Faction has plenty of connections and hidden messages within its game, it points out much of the floors in human society today, and how easily big company’s can exploit those that are vulnerable.  The story goes that the miners on mars, who are mining for resources for planet earth, are being mistreated, work long hours, beaten for no reason, kept in poor conditions, and to top it all off an illness they call the plague, is spreading around with in the miners killing them all off. All the miner unit and rebel against Ultor complex, the company that runs the whole process on Mars.

Many of these exploits seen within the game can be seen in todays world, for example the miners in South Africa’s, are currently on protest against the low pay, poor work conditions and living conditions they have to endure. When protesting for their voice to be heard, South Africa’s police force open fired for no reason, on the protesters killing people and arresting them under false allegations, this is very much connected to Red Faction. The protest for better working condition and pay can also been seen in 1972 and 1974 where miners strike within the UK, many protest were undertaken and arrests were made. These connections show us, how miners through out history and the world have been taken advantage of, even today, like in South Africa, miners in china or any poorer state are having to work in terrible work conditions and long unbearable hours, simple because it’s cheap and they are all easily replaced.

Red Faction has many meanings behind its name, for example the word RED, can relate to communism, where everyone is equal and together, Red has the connection to the red flag of Russia, which was created in 1917 when removing royal family and reuniting the nation. And the definition of the word faction means a small, organized, dissenting group within a larger one, combining the two together forms a strong message of power.

The plague within red faction, is a man made disease treated by scientists, who use some of the miners for lab rats, the connection and exploits of this can be again seen in our history, usually war, for example the Nazi did many weapon testing and experiments on the capture Jews. These heartless treatments were used for purposes for making bio weapons and better equipment for the use of the field. 

Red Faction underlines that even when these miners are under poor conditions, and living in terrible life, there is always someone looking for more ways to make money. 

Ultor complex, the company the rules the whole operation can represent any big financial corporation, such as Microsoft, Sainsbury’s, and Next, can be seen as good example, they can easily have the opportunity to take advantage of people, whether this been in work factory’s or cheap labour, without the rest of the world knowing, until something goes wrong, much like todays banks, using the country’s money to gamble for there own benefits.


(Reference from personal view, Lecture, and Wikipedia)

Death of an Author

We were given a text taken and translated by Barthes, which talks about the death of todays author, I found the text incredible hard to read and understand, but understandably it was written in 1968 and has been translated from french to english, so some of the translation may be hard to replicate.

Shooting the messenger: Barthes, Foucault and the death of the Author

The birth of the reader must be at the cost of the death of the author

Grand Narratives or Meta narratives, which explain 'the way things are' for example religion, science, philosophy, etc, etc.

Quote from Barthes - ‘The image of literature to be found in ordinary culture is tyrannically centered on the author, his person, his life, his tastes, his passions, while criticism still consists for the most part in saying that Baudelaire’s work is the failure of Baudelaire the man, Van Gogh’s his madness, Tchaikovsky’s his vice. The explana'on of a work is always sought in the man or woman who produced it, as if it were always in the end, through more or less transparent allegory of the fiction, the voice of a single person, the author “confiding” in us.’

The important and meaningful parts of the text "Death of the Author"

Barthes speaks of the suppression of ' the author in the interests of writing, which is to restore the place of the read.

It is language that speaks, not the author. (the chose of words used that help describe and represent the meaning)

‘the author, when believed in, is always conceived as the past of his own book: book and author stand automatically on a single line divided into a before and after. The Author... exists before it, thinks, suffers, lives for it, is in the same relation of antecedence to his work as a father to his child.’

( In other words the author will have a very strong connection and view of their book, they may have personal experience and relation to the book, making it very personal to them)

Whereas ‘the modern scriptor is born simultaneously with the text... there is no other time than that of the enunciation and every text is eternally written here and now’

A text is not a line of words releasing a single “theological” meaning (the “message” of the Author-God) but a multi-dimensional space in which a variety of writings, none of them original, blend and clash. The text is a tissue of quotations drawn from the innumerable centres of culture.

(Reference from personal view and Lecture)

Abstract Expressionism 

an artistic movement of the mid-20th century comprising diverse styles and techniques and emphasizing especially an artist's liberty to convey attitudes and emotions through nontraditional and usually nonrepresentational means

It's a form of art that allows the picture, painting, or art work tell the story of what it represents and the means, also open to much interpretation and debating among the meaning behind the work. 

Example of these abstract expressionism 

David Salle (1990) Mingus in Mexico
Gerhard Richter (1985) Station; Fiona Rae (1996) Bandit

Mark Rothko, Coloured lined drawing paintings 

Jackson Pollock paint splatting work


(Reference from Lecture)

Birthing the reader 

In today, players can literally take control of the story instead of being able to read the story, many games offer many paths in which the story of the text can change. Most game do not need to be narrated, as the player can write the story, in other words become a god of the game. 

Michel Foucault wrote 'what is an author?' wrote  'Categorisation of works by concept, genre, school, etc. ‘seem relatively weak... in comparison with the solid and fundamental unit of the author and the work.’ The name of the author, then, fulfils a ‘classificatory function'.

The author provides the basis for explaining not only the presence of certain events in the work, but also their transformations, distortions, and diverse modifications


(Reference from Lecture)

The New Questions

Michel Foucault see's text as a weapon, example of this can be seen in the anti Vietnam war that America was involved in, using words and images to combine the powerful message.

Text can be used as the same as images, an image that can show a message, hidden or not can still create an iconic symbol to represent it's statement. 

Something to Consider

• Is this an issue that concerns you?

This doesn't concern, as even today we are exploring and creating new ideas of delivering and creating narratives and messages within today's society, if we were to just stick to one style we would end up copying each other methods of presenting an important message and the people will get bored and lose interest, so by exploring new ways of creating messages within art and text is ver important.

• To what extent is the author function present in games?

I feel the authors function in today's game has greatly improved to a certain extent, Technology is allowing authors to create fare better narratives and story structures, because of the limitless advancement within technology  we are able to go to much better levels, and explore the possibilities in which we can present our new media forms.

• Is the author still a classificatory function in games?

Games today such as The Sims are even allow people to make their own story, but this still doesn't eliminate the main function of an author as an author is still present to represent the preset story's within the game, that players can continue or rewrite. It is now I see it as an ever more requirement for a good story and good gameplay to make games in today's media work.

• Or does the narrative itself take precedence?  

It seems the more and more players want to be able to play their own story's within a games, e.g. RPG games, as once again Technology is ever advancing allow players to have the abilities to create their own character, and imagination, such as Little Big Planet and Skyrim.

(Reference from personal view and Lecture)