Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
connotations over the basic denotations of the scenes. We derive connotations that
inform us the character we are to roleplay in this game. The effect of these sequences
and the training level that follows is to ground the back story in some specifi c myths
to do with culture in the United States; namely myths to do with the criminal under-
world and the U.S. style of policing. We use the term “myth” here because we are
presented with a view of U.S. policing and criminality which we are intended to
accept as correct or natural. The myths are conjured up indirectly at fi rst by the
grubby police chief' s offi ce and the casual style of conversation, and the necessity
for undercover operations; textual codes from fi lm and TV that we use to connote
the myth of U.S. police.
In the training level we are expected to make use of social codes which we
apply to derive connotations of the type of person who is checking out our driving.
Using these codes we deduce that this person is black and a criminal, although we
never actually see him. The voice is a powerful synecdoche, a complex index, which
connotes the whole person. When the fi rst level starts we learn very quickly that we
are illegally listening into police radio frequencies. We also, pretty quickly, see
stereotypical US police cars in black and white: all of which reinforces the natural-
ness of the myths we are expected to adopt. We are not expected to question these
myths.
The effect of the connotations we form, regarding the nature of the character
we are to adopt and the myths we are expected to accept, is to position us, the player,
in a particular way in the game world. We come to see lawlessness, at least with
respect to the laws of the road, and the police as the enemy as our natural view of
the world. This is intended to direct us to the kinds of connotations we should derive
from everyday situations on the road: we ignore red lights and which side of the
road to drive on, we don't worry about damaging other people's cars or making them
crash and maybe injuring those inside. The connotation we have built up is of a
criminal mind and this, in turn, directs us to the kinds of intentions we form with
respect to situations we encounter on the road. Once again semiotics complements
and completes our previous analyses.
There is one more thing to analyze before we start to bring this chapter to a
close and this is the relation between the “game world” and the “real world.” Many
games these days will not be playable, will be devoid of essential meanings, if we
do not make the link between the two. Semiotics is the way we explain and under-
stand this relationship. In particular it concerns the interplay between the media
specifi c codes, the textual codes, of computer games, and fi lm, arithmetic, and so
on, and the social and interpretive codes of real or fi ctitious worlds. Only a game
that is purely symbolic will not require the social codes.
Shenmue is a game that quite beautifully evokes the social world of a Japanese
city and its suburbs. The “real world” connoted here is not one that many players
of the game would have direct experience with, although they will probably be
familiar with it from TV and fi lms. But while the world of Driver is largely signifi ed
in terms of streets, buildings, and traffi c movements and noises, the world of
Shenmue is highly social and employs a whole range of social codes to do with
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