Meaning What? - Game Invaders: The Theory and Understanding of Computer Games - page 146

how different the game would have been if some or all of these signs themselves
had been different; if there were different signifi ers leading to similar but differing
signifi eds.
When thinking about the relationships between signs in games we should con-
sider both the paradigmatic and the syntagmatic cases. Particular groupings of signs
that are present will give us important information concerning the current state of
play of the game. The relationship between signs that are present and those that
could perhaps have been but are not infl uence, and hopefully reinforce, the meanings
we make of the signs we can perceive. Both cases can usefully be considered.
CODES
Before we go on to apply semiotics to some of the other games we have already
discussed in previous chapters there is one more concept that we need to consider.
How is it that we know how to interpret certain signs in certain ways? For instance,
how do we recognize the two differing meanings associated with the same Pac-Man
sign in the gameplay area itself and below the gameplay area? Of course we know
the fi rst is our playable character and the second the number of extra lives we cur-
rently have; but how did we know this? Would we have known this if we were not
familiar with games?
The answer to the second question is probably no. The answer to the fi rst ques-
tion is that in playing games we have learned some general principles about how
they work and in particular about how to attribute meaning to the signs we fi nd in
them. We have learned some rules that allow us to engage in meaning-making in
the fi rst place. These rules are known as codes in semiotics and it is the codes that
allow us to decode signs; to make meanings of them. For instance, we quickly learn
a code which allows us to work out who and what we are in the game world. Are
we an icon such as Pac-Man or a spaceship in Spacewar? Do we have a fi rst - person
point of view and thus don't see (much of) ourselves in the game, instead having
only our eyes' view into that world? How do we put together the current state of the
game and our relative success or failure so far: do we just get it from the playable
character's position? Is there other information that we need to monitor and how is
that information made available to us; is there a HUD, for example?
Game genres suggest one important set of codes that allow us to work out
what we have to do and how to monitor success and failure. The click - and - play
genre, for instance, informs us about the nature of agency, the highly stylized
form of movement, the puzzle-based nature of the game, and so on. But different
click - and - play games can be very different in other respects. They can be stylistically
very different. Consider Blade Runner and Grim Fandango, for instance. They both
share the basic click - and - play genre characteristics but accomplish them in very
different ways. Blade Runner adopts codes of presentation from the fi lm of the same
name which is its antecedent: we have fi lm noir lighting codes, camera work, and
characterization codes; we have a sci-fi plot and themes; we have highly realistic
puzzles that relate directly to the complex plot to solve. In Grim Fandango' s case