Meaning What? - Game Invaders: The Theory and Understanding of Computer Games - page 143

Pac-Man is a game ahead of its time. Within a very simple 2D, nonscrolling graphics
context we have a very rich world of connotation in which Pac-Man, the ultimate
consumer, tries to overcome the forces of the supernatural in order to keep on
consuming.
In semiotics, myth refers to meanings, signifi eds and connotations in particular,
which seem to be so natural that we do not question them. In Pac-Man we fi nd two
very common myths of contemporary society connoted:
• Consumerism (capitalism): despite the frightening situation he fi nds himself
in, Pac-Man only exists to consume, he is willing to risk his life (lives) to
do so.
• The Supernatural: ghosts, disembodied spirits, haunted houses and so on
represent the threat to Pac-Man's very reason for existence.
Pac-Man will continue to consume as long as he can continue to outwit the forces
of evil, which are ably represented by the myth of the supernatural which might
itself be intended to connote communism or totalitarianism. Remember, Pac-Man
fi rst appeared at the height of the Cold War. In its own way, limited by the technol-
ogy of its time, Pac-Man may well be seen to be playing out the myths that consti-
tuted the Cold War, which dominated all aspects of life in the days when it was built.
In computer games, myths are very often exploited to present the context within
which the gameplay will operate. Sometimes such myths are an integral part of the
narrative potential of the game—as in classic Japanese RPGs , for instance.
SYNTAGMS AND PARADIGMS
Of course, when we read a novel, watch a fi lm, or play a computer game we don't
just make sense of a single sign at a time; we are constantly making meaning out
of the various groupings of signs we come across. In fi lms, for instance, such group-
ings might be the arrangement of people, vehicles, props, and so on in a scene— the
mise - en - sc è ne in European cinema—or it might be the arrangement, the cutting
together, of individual fi lm clips—montage, in European cinema. The grouping of
signs and their changing relationships is just as important a factor in computer games
and gameplay. In semiotics such relationships between signifi ers are called syn-
tagms; relating to the importance of syntax in the writing of novels and other printed
word media. But syntagms don't have to obey the same strict rules of syntax as
written or spoken languages.
Differing media will be governed by differing syntagmatic relationships between
signifi ers. In novels the relationships are linear and static; the words in a novel don' t
change places while you are reading. In fi lms we have groupings of signifi ers that
appear on the screen at the same time and groupings of signifi ers that are ordered
in time as the fi lm is projected. The former are called synchronic (synchronized)
relationships while the latter are called diachronic (over time). Similar relationships
govern computer games which have notions related to mise - en - sc è ne and montage.