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2.
"I LIKE TO WATCH, EVE"
Peter
Sellers' Chance the gardener in Being
There was an unwitting viewer in a mediated world; attracting
people inadvertently by his charismatic presence as observer.
The popular gamer, the one with the most friends, wants the game
that offers multiplayer possibilities, because she doesn't want
to just watch. Four-player split screen gaming consigns an individual's
range of vision to one specific corner of the televisual image.
The effect of this quarter-sized playing area is twofold: isolating
through its exclusion of much of the game world; comforting in
its creation of the appearance of a personal realm. To take up
a participatory role, one is willing to allow for this condensation
of space, and sink into a mindset that welcomes the comfort factor.
A willingness to employ less than ideal conditions can be related
to the assumption that there is no place for spectatorship in
video game playing, which is brought about by its not being a
tenet of the medium. Eskelinen and Tronstad point out that "although
some games [will] often include one, having an audience present
is never required in order to play"2.
That they are wholly able to hold up as individual practices,
and that most players become enraptured with the digital playing
field in a moment of personal, intense gaming, situates video
games as private platforms. The impression is given that the connection
between gamer and interface is an intimate one. Rather than encroach
on the private acting out of virtual fantasies, peers take up
the second controller and play along.
By
locating the act as outside the realm of audience feedback, gaming
is denied much of the 'mass' of mass communication. Spectatorship,
when applied to simulations and games, alters the subject position
of the one holding the joystick. Were there to be another person
present during digital play, the interactive event changes shape.
As the gamer is taking up control over a simulated space, she
becomes complicit in the onscreen events. To onlookers, she stands
as performer, manipulating visual patterns for the viewers' pleasure
or anxiety or frustration. The late 90s television program Video
& Arcade Top Ten on YTV (a Canadian youth-oriented network,
based in Toronto) exploited a desire to experience digital games
through viewing. It pitted 4 pre-teens against each other in a
competition of the hottest titles for Super Nintendo or Sega Genesis.
A running commentary injected with game tips ran over top visuals
of split screens showing the game space along with the face of
the corresponding player (this form continues in popularity with
the likes of G4TechTV's Arena). This rightfully situated the viewed
gamer as performer, making her presence an active part of the
event. The nuances of the human face engaged in digital play are
captivating. While watching others play, I feel as though I am
staring at the digital soul of this virtual subject who is physically
caught in the game's feedback look. In a furled brow of exasperation
or a quivering lip of apprehension coupled with eyes glazed from
a cathode screen, the human form appears lost somewhere in the
space between the body and the game.
SLIDESHOW
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