Ludology, Narratology, Criticism and the dissertation I should have written

Posted on | Friday, 26 November 2010 | No Comments

A friend of mine is currently writing a dissertation about - well, what I gather from the conversations we have - game design and aspects thereof. The particular discussion we had that triggered this post was about the ongoing discussion about how videogames should be analysed, and what 'units of meaning' and 'systems' might relate to in terms of that discussion.

As a student of English I feel pretty well versed in terms of narratological discussion though, when it came time for my dissertation, I chose the safe option and wrote about literature. While what I wrote was fine and in no way do I regret it, I regret my initial decision, especially in light of this discussion.

My initial idea was to discuss the first person perspective in videogames and how it contributes to and shapes the narrative and how, in particular, Bioshock builds on and subverts those very notions. At the very mention of Bioshock I still get a small tinge of regret about my decision...

The conversation in question, about what 'units of meaning' are, quickly descended into me talking about Bioshock and realising what should have been. Narrative in games can be, or at least should be, extremely diverse - even looking at the few games I've dedicated time to recently; Mass Effect 2, Planescape: Torment, Alpha Protocol et al, have extremely different devices to conveying plot to the player.

For what it's worth, and as is perhaps obvious at this stage, I would take Bioshock's approach over most others. It does a lot of things, a lot of things I won't talk about now - like the dramatic irony, the subversion of traditional game mechanics and the ultimate admission/failure of the game that these mechanics are, currently, inescapable.

What amazes me most about Bioshock, as has been noted on numerous occasions all across the internet, is the environment. It's not the astonishing art design, and I'm in no place to lend any kind of weight to that discussion, but the way in which the "units of meaning" contribute to the overall, for want of a better expression, "system" of the game. Every audio log, while optional, lends authenticity and a humanism to the plot, while every room is delicately designed so that every aspect of it contributes to a smaller narrative of the space in question - and this is the most remarkable aspect of the game.

Upon exploring a room it becomes painfully obvious what has occurred in each space - blood stained walls spell out slogans, abandoned new years decorations adorn the walls but, perhaps more subtly, it's these things in combination with your growing knowledge of rapture, the audio logs and some more striking visual pieces that inform your understanding of the plot, not just of Bioshock, but the entire narrative of rapture and its inhabitants.

It's difficult to talk about Bioshock without seeing it, in fact it's the type of game that could, in years to come, benefit from a re-release with a developer commentary or, should 'games criticism' find its own niche or adapt narratological discussions to its own ends, maybe this is the kind of thing we'll see.

I live in hope, however, that one day I'll commit something to paper/epaper about Bioshock in a serious, more structured manner - hopefully before Bioshock: Infinite drops and blows my mind.

Comments