Meaning What? - Game Invaders: The Theory and Understanding of Computer Games - page 140

• Symbols: The signifi er is arbitrary, the signifi er denotes the signifi ed by
convention:
• The words in this text are symbolic: there is no direct relationship between
the word “ tree ” and its signifi ed to do with “treeness”; other languages will
have equally arbitrary signifi ers to denote “ treeness ”
• Mathematics is highly symbolic, many different cultures over the millennia
have used different symbols to represent the same mathematical concepts.
We can see all these modes of sign at work in Pac-Man:
• Icons
• Cherries, strawberries, and other fruit
• Ghosts are iconic to some extent; they look like the classic idea of ghosts
• Pac - Man 's extra lives are iconic, he is exactly like himself.
• Indexes
• Pac - Man 's mouth represents the whole character; it's only from the mouth's
behavior that we begin to discern a character
• The chomping sound signifi es eating, reinforcing Pac-Man's indexic mouth
• 2D blue lines represent walls because of the way they constrain movement
but don't look much like walls
• The moving eyes of the ghosts are indexic, as they denote a sentient being.
• Symbols
• Pac - Man 's “food” is symbolic, it doesn't look much like food even though
his mouth devours it
• The number representing the current score is symbolic
• The word “ SCORE ” is symbolic
• The association of points with various signifi ers is symbolic, the number of
points associated with fruit and ghosts we have killed, for instance, is arbi-
trary, we only come to know this by playing the game.
We can see that there is quite a balance of signs of various types in Pac-Man.
We have strongly iconic meanings, strongly symbolic meanings, and strongly indexic
meanings. Sounds are often indexic in computer games; they can signify a creature
or a crowd of people without the presence of any visual signifi ers. Very often these
various modes of signs are associated with the same signifi er. The ghosts have iconic
meanings—this is how we recognize them as ghosts—but they also have symbolic
meanings as points to be won. In fact Pac-Man seems to operate on two almost
disparate levels: the iconic-indexic and the symbolic. In the end the symbolic wins
out for most players and Pac-Man becomes a game of points and lives. The limited
procedural, spatial, and encyclopedic features of the game (see Chapter 4) mean that
narrative potential, transformation, and co-presence lack depth and become increas-
ingly irrelevant.
The tension between the iconic-indexic and the symbolic manifests itself in
many games: shooters and beat -' em - ups are good examples. A typical beat -' em - up
provides a clear illustration of the tension between the iconic-indexic and the sym-
bolic. Injury and nearness to death are symbolic, numerical values calculated by