"Ideologies & Games" by Sherry Jones (Nov. 16, 2014)

#Metagame Book Club
Game Studies Week 2: “Ideologies & Games”
Sherry Jones
Game Studies Facilitator
Fall 2014
@autnes
http://bit.ly/gamestudies7

Watch the Live Webcast To This Lecture!

Texts in Focus
Political Ideologies & Games
1. "Rapture Through Russell: Bioshock & Bertrand Russell's
Authority & The Individual" by Ciarán Ó Muirthile (2014)
War Ideologies & Games
2. "Play and Possibility in the Rhetoric of the War on Terror: The
Structure of Agency in Halo 2" by Gerald Voorhees (2014)
Ethical and Moral Ideologies & Games
3. "Moral Decision Making in Fallout" by Marcus Schulzke (2009)

Guiding Questions
Q. What is ideology according to Louis Althusser? What is the relationship
between ideology and digital media, such as video games?
Q. According to the academic articles assigned this week, what types of
ideology present and assert themselves in games? Can you name some
examples?
Q. Do game developers consciously incorporate ideology into a game’s
narrative? If not, why do ideologies appear in video games?
Q. As an educator, do you consider video games appropriate for teaching
different types of ideology? Why or why not?

A Close Reading of
"Rapture Through Russell: Bioshock & Bertrand Russell's
Authority & The Individual" by Ciarán Ó Muirthile (2014)
“Tea Garden” in Bioshock

Ciarán Ó Muirthile (2014) analyzes the breakdown of the city of
Rapture and the political ideology of individualism in the story of
Bioshock (2007), through Bertrand Russell’s political philosophy on
the role of social cohesion in the survival of a state.
For Muirthile, previous attempts to analyze Bioshock’s story
through Ayn Rand’s individualism do not adequately account for
the complex issues that led to Rapture’s series of breakdowns.
Through the lens of Russell’s political philosophy, Muirthile argues
that Rapture’s breakdowns are caused by intellectualism, oppression
of irrationality, individualist freedom, and lack of social cohesion.
Analyzing Bioshock via Bertrand Russell

Balance Between Rationality and
Irrationality
“Andrew Ryan’s ‘great city’ shuns moral and emotional barriers in the
pursuit of artistic, scientific and industrial greatness. But, as Russell
explains repeatedly throughout his lectures, those impulses, which he
describes as irrational or emotional, can only be suppressed for so long
before a type of coiled spring effect occurs, and a violent, shocking
return to natural equilibrium–in the case of BioShock this is a state of
emotionality or irrationality–occurs.”
-- Ciarán Ó Muirthile

Society vs. Individualist Freedom
“Ryan, in building Rapture, built an escape from the impulses which, he
felt, restricted growth in the facets of human development important
to him. But in doing this he forced other elements of natural human
instinct and society to be quashed in the spirit of individualist
freedom.”

Tenenbaum, Intellectualism, and Amorality
“The character of Tenenbaum, who worked
with ‘kindred spirits’ in Nazi experiments during
the Second World War, is seemingly a perfect
match for the amoral, intellectual, progress-
driven ethic of Ryan and Rapture, and yet it is
her story which shows the dramatic change.”
Image by Biohock Wiki

Before we dive deeper into the texts, I want to provide you with
some context to help clarify Muirthile’s argument that Brigid
Tenenbaum, a key character in Bioshock, symbolizes the story’s
turn from amoral intellectualism to emotionalism (which was
repressed by rationality).
Brigid Tenenbaum is a geneticist who discovers the ADAM substance
in sea slugs, and creates a series of ADAM-based commercial products
for enhancing human capabilities. She also created Little Sisters
(female children) to collect ADAM. The following are 2 in-game audio
diary recordings by Brigid Tenenbaum from Bioshock:
Analyzing Bioshock via Bertrand Russell

“The augmentation procedure is a success. The slugs alone could not
provide enough ADAM for serious work. But combined with the
host... now we have something. The slug is embedded in the lining of
the host's stomach and after the host feeds we induce regurgitation,
and then we have twenty, thirty times yield of usable ADAM. The
problem now is the shortage of hosts. Fontaine says, ‘Patience,
Tenenbaum. Soon the first home for Little Sisters will be open, and
that problem will be solved...’”
-- [AUDIO DIARY] “Mass producing ADAM” by Bioshock Wiki
Brigid Tenanbaum’s Audio Diary 1

“What makes something like me? I look at genes all day long, and
never do I see the blueprint of sin. I could blame the Germans, but in
truth, I did not find tormentors in the Prison Camp, but kindred spirits.
These children I brutalized have awoken something inside that for
most is beautiful and natural, but in me, is an abomination... my
maternal instinct.”
-- [AUDIO DIARY] “Maternal Instincts” by Bioshock Wiki
Brigid Tenenbaum’s Audio Dairies 2
Image by Bioshock Wiki

Breakdown - Tenenbaum’s Emotionalism
“Yet her constant repression of her emotional core leads to the coiled
spring effect, and later the player discovers Tenenbaum’s true feelings:
‘I feel… hatred, like I never felt before, in my chest. Bitter, burning fury.
I can barely breathe. And suddenly, I know, it is not this child I hate.’
BioShock presents her turn from being the intellectual, progress
driven being of rationality to becoming a mother, a creature of
emotion, of spiritual connection, as an about-face.”

Breakdown - Death of Lutz to Cold
Intellectualism
“BioShock, in keeping with its theme of mind overriding heart,
offers Mariska Lutz’s story as another example of the suppression
of ‘irrationality’ which, while giving Rapture life, turns against the
underwater refuge. Mariska’s daughter, Masha, is taken in for
implantation, to further the scientific uses of the sea-slug; to “save the
city” according to one of her Audio Logs. Mariska is expected to, and
indeed does, suppress her instincts and her emotional drives in
favour of Rapture’s ethos. For the good of the dream, of Rapture and
science, Mariska and her husband make a sacrifice ultimately neither
can live with.”

Breakdown - State (Community) Ideology vs.
Individual Interest
“The conflict between building a community and allowing complete
individualism is what ultimately causes the first cracks to appear. As Russell
would put it, both Ryan and the other people in Rapture are creating a product,
a paradise of individualism and excellence. However the divorce between
‘management and the worker’ (Russell 43-44), that is the top level and the
lowest level, means that the product becomes less and less of interest to those
who don’t share the vision of the management. The uniting purpose, the
social bonds so crucial to the development of a stable society, are denied a
chance to grow: Rapture, in the end, remains an empty seashell rather than
a city.”

Breakdown - No Enemies as Uniting Purpose
“A glance at Rapture, and its founding ethos, shows that Ryan, almost
accidentally, made this togetherness impossible. Rapture was built
underwater, away from the “man in Washington,” etc., because it
was the only place that Rapture would be allowed to exist. It was
the only place where those who felt restricted by societal norms
and values could escape and be free. Rapture, in short, no longer has
any enemies.”

A Close Reading of
"Play and Possibility in the Rhetoric of the War on Terror: The
Structure of Agency in Halo 2" by Gerald Voorhees (2014)
Master Chief in Halo

Player Agency in Interpreting the Rhetoric
of War in Halo 2
Gerald Voorhees (2014) examines the ideology of American
Exceptionalism in the game, Halo 2, through the lens of post 9/11
rhetoric on the War on Terror. He argues that the game affords the
player a sense of agency to respond to the War on Terror via gameplay.
Voorhees applies “Michel Foucault’s theory of agency and Northrop
Frye's theories of fictional mode and thematic genre to consider a
range of possible, potentially overlapping affective responses to Halo
2.”
-- Gerald Voorhees

Relationship between Government and the
Entertainment Media Industry
“Stahl (2006) provides a most comprehensive analysis of the game
industry's role in the post-9/11 media landscape. Recounting the Bush
administration's efforts to reach out to entertainment media
industries, Stahl gives a thoroughly contextualized accounting of
numerous games released in the five years following the attacks on the
World Trade Center and argues that the game discourses blur the
distinction between citizen and soldier.”
-- Gerald Voorhees

Definition of Power via Foucault
“[P]ower is an effect of knowledge
materialized though the actions of
subjects. Power operates to the
extent that the actions make sense
in the context of the discourses that
shape how people know the matter
in question. This does not mean
that power is domination. Quite
the opposite, ‘It operates on the
field of possibilities in which the
behaviour of active subjects is able
to inscribe itself’ (Foucault, 2000, p.
341).” -- Gerald Voorhees

Definition of Agency via Foucault
“This paradigm, cognizant of the ubiquity of power and the importance
of intelligible action, maintains that agency ‘must emerge from an
analysis of the particular concepts that enable specific modes of being,
responsibility and effectivity’ (Mahmood, 2005, p. 14-15). Agency, in
this light, is neither the freedom from domination characteristic of
liberalism nor the power to impact the gameworld banalized by
scholars of game design, but the ability to create meaning in a
situation not of one's own making.”
-- Gerald Voorhees

Rhetoric of Agency of the War on Terror
“In the face of this danger, (an undeconstructed notion of) agency
becomes a key theme in official discourses alternatively celebrating
and justifying the War on Terror.”
“Agency, to seek justice, to redress wrongs and to ‘define our times,
not be defined by them,’ is central to this ethos (G.W. Bush, quoted
in Murphy, 2003, p. 624). The same polarizing rhetoric of ‘us versus
them’ that highlights the ideological character of the War on Terror
figures American agency as a Biblical power wielded against the
forces of evil (Ivie, 2007).”
-- Gerald Voorhees

Exceptionalism and the War on Terror
“[I]deology of American exceptionalism . . . was a cornerstone of the
Bush Administration's post-9/11 rhetoric and inspired the bravado that
underwrote Bush's claim that ‘in our grief and anger we have found our
mission and our moment’ (quoted in Murphy, 2003, p. 623). . . . Indeed,
as evidenced by claims that the War on Terror would bring about the
‘democratic globalism’ espoused by conservative commentators at the
American Enterprise Institute and produce what the National Security
Policy of the United States of America describes as "a balance of
power that favors human freedom" (both quoted in Rojecki, 2008, p.
72) the War on Terror is deeply entrenched in exceptionalist
ideology.” -- Gerald Voorhees

Halo and the Weapon of Mass Destruction
“In [Halo: Combat Evolved] players enter the twenty-sixth century,
where humans have been attacked without warning, just like the
Americans in the World Trade Center on the day of 9/11, and thus
find themselves embroiled in a war with an alien civilization known as
the Covenant. HCE begins when a human spaceship pursued by a
Covenant armada makes a blind 'jump' into deep space and discovers a
Halo, an ancient but technologically sophisticated relic of the
heretofore unknown Forerunners. Upon learning that the Covenant
seek to use the Halo as a weapon of mass destruction, the player
sets out to commandeer or destroy it.”
-- Gerald Voorhees

Halo 2 and Theology
“[I]n H2 the Covenant is identified as a religious movement. While
dialogue concerning the "sacred rings," "holy rings" and "sacred
journey" pepper the game's script, the theocratic nature of the
Covenant is also highlighted by several non-interactive cut-scenes
toward the start of the game. One scene is a 'trial' that takes place on
the Covenant Holy City, High Charity, (identified in an establishing
shot).”
-- Gerald Voorhees

Halo 2 and Theo-Politics
“[A] Covenant soldier of the Sangheile species (called Elites by human
soldiers) is publicly humiliated for failing to safeguard the Halo ring
destroyed in HCE. He is dragged from a kangaroo court to an
amphitheater, where thousands watch, and approbated: ‘There can be
no greater heresy. Let him be an example for all who would break our
Covenant!’ Then, he is tortured and branded with a hot iron. Because
this scene takes place before gameplay has begun, it frames the
conflict that follows. . . . [The] scene also evokes the fundamentalist
ideology of the Covenant and theo-political character of the
Human-Covenant War, paralleling the Bush Administration's
construction of America's War on Terror.”
-- Gerald Voorhees

Halo 2 and the Rhetoric of the Apocalypse
“H2 also quickly reestablishes the apocalyptic nature of the Human-
Covenant War. When they first encounter the ring, the humans are
reminded, ‘If activated, this ring will cause destruction on a galactic
scale.’ Later, a Covenant transmission proclaiming that the activation of
the ring will commence a Great Journey is intercepted and a human
soldier calls out, ‘Great Journey? Doesn't he know what these rings do?’
By linking the Covenant's misguided religious fundamentalism with
the potential destruction of all life in the galaxy, the game
buttresses the analogical relationship with the War on Terror that
players must negotiate as they play H2.”
-- Gerald Voorhees

A Close Reading of
"Moral Decision Making in Fallout" by Marcus Schulzke (2009)
In-Game Propaganda videos from Fallout 3

The Fallout Game Series and Morality
Marcus Schulzke (2009) argues that video games are literary texts can
be used to teach students how to think about morality and moral
choice. Due to the unique, interactive nature of video games, he
asserts that video games force the player to make moral choices
based on her own value systems, which in turn, can make the player
question her moral choices.
For Schulzke, the Fallout game series best simulate the conditions of
philosophical questions, such as the moral dilemma, in the game
narrative and gameplay.

Games and Moral Choices
“The Fallout series is among the video games best suited for ethical
instruction because it is set in an open world that grants the player
freedom of action - including the freedom to be moral or immoral.
Although these games have not perfected the moral dimension of play,
they are effective in presenting players with complex moral dilemmas
that require careful reasoning. The games do not purport to teach
morality and they should not attempt to do so. Their value is in creating
compelling simulations that force players to test their own values then
using sanctions in the game to respond to the player's choices. We
should see them as a training ground in which players can practice
thinking about morality.”
-- Marcus Schulzke

Setting of the Fallout Series
“The character ventures into
the wasteland of post-nuclear
America to find an array
enemies ranging from
mutated ghouls to renegade
factions of the US army and
must complete a series of
open-ended quests that
make game experiences
personal.”
-- Marcus Schulzke

Moral Weight of Choices in Fallout Series
“What makes the games so enjoyable is that choices matter. While
players must complete the same main quests they have so much choice
over which side quests to complete and how to complete them that no
player come away with the same experience as another One of the
qualities that sets the Fallout series apart from other games is that the
quests are not only open but that they also attach moral weight to the
player's choices.”
-- Marcus Schulzke

Fallout 3 & The Moral Question on Drugs
“Fallout 3 was initially banned in Australia because of the
prominent role of drugs (Peckham, 2008), only to be accepted in an
altered form that fit with the country's game rating system. . . . In the
game, each drug is accompanied by a small graphical representation
of the drug and the player is shown using them when they are taken
in the game. The drugs closely resemble real ones. Med-X, was even
called 'morphine' before censors forced a change. They are also
suggestive for having numerous positive and negative side-effects as
well as the possibility of addiction. Usually drugs in games are far more
one-dimensional, repairing hit points or increasing strength and not
doing much else.”
-- Marcus Schulzke

Fallout 3 & The Moral Question on Sexuality
“The first two Fallout games also included high levels of sexual
content. In Fallout 2 the player could collect condoms, ‘Jimmy Hats,’
and work in the post apocalyptic American pornography industry. The
scenes were never visually graphic, but they did bring real moral
questions about sexuality into the game with uncompromising
directness.”
-- Marcus Schulzke

Player-Centric Virtue Ethics
“More than anything else, the Fallout series is unique in giving players
an open world in which they can make genuine moral choices. Moral
dilemmas are not presented for passive contemplation - they are an
integral part of gameplay. As Sicart points out in his study of virtue
ethics in games (Sicart 2009), virtue ethics is player-centric. It
makes sense only when players are not merely passive recipients of
the games content but actually play a role in determining the
course of events. Fallout is certainly player-centric and it includes a
sophisticated system of quantifying players' actions in order to work
them into a computer simulation.”
-- Marcus Schulzke

Utilitarianism and Fallout
“[Jeremy Bentham, philosopher of utilitarianism,] measures happiness
by assigning numerical value to the variables intensity, duration,
certainty, propinquity, purity, fecundity and extent. For time and
propinquity this is easy since we already measure time and space
numerically. Bentham also thinks we can assign numbers to the
intensity of a pleasure and how certain one is of obtaining it
(Bentham, 1961).”
-- Marcus Schulzke

Utilitarianism and Fallout (Cont’d)
“Fallout 3 attempts something similar to Bentham's quantification
of pleasure and pain with the Karma scale. Although Fallout does not
start from the utilitarian assumption of happiness being the greatest
goal, it does measure the amount of harm done to other characters in
the game. There are six moral types corresponding to the numerical
values. Between -1,000 and -750 the player is very evil, -749 to -250 is
evil, -249 to 249 is neutral, 250 to 749 is good, and 750 to 1,000 is very
good (Hodgson, 2008, p.29). Nearly everything the player does in
Fallout 3 affects Karma in some way, either increasing or
decreasing the number of points depending on the morality of the
action.”
-- Marcus Schulzke

Fallout 3 and Moral Dilemma
“In The Pitt, a Fallout 3 expansion, the player is faced with a moral
decision that is far less clear than most others in the game. The
main quest, ‘Free Labor,’ revolves around a difficult choice between
freeing slaves and curing a degenerative disease by kidnapping a baby
or defending the baby and the scientists looking for a more humane
cure to the disease while allowing the slaves to remain oppressed. The
designers took a care to present compelling reasons for each
choice.”
-- Marcus Schulzke

Fallout 3 and Moral Dilemma (Cont’d)
“The slaves clearly live miserable lives and aspire to something better,
but they are also ready to hurt the innocent baby in pursuit of their
cure and want to kill all of their former captors, not all of whom seem
immoral. On the other hand, the slavers treat the baby well and they
have a strange paternalistic care for the slaves because their leader
claims to defend them from the outside world. The masters are flawed
because they keep slaves and because the forced labor includes such
unnecessarily harsh measures as forcing them to fight each other to
the death. Thus the player is forced to weigh two choices that will
each produce a great deal of good and evil.”
-- Marcus Schulzke

Lecture By:
Sherry Jones
Game Studies Facilitator
Philosophy, Rhetoric, Game Studies
@autnes
Writings & Webcasts
Access Slides: http://bit.ly/gamestudies7

"Ideologies & Games" by Sherry Jones (Nov. 16, 2014)

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