Big Game Hunting - Game Invaders: The Theory and Understanding of Computer Games - page 181

co-presence, and presence that go with it. Genre, activity profi ling, and twitch
factors can now be seen as ways of characterizing general properties of the game
that arise out of this diachronic development. The propeller is thus a synecdoche
which signifi es not only a very large cargo ship or passenger liner but also the ocean
it sails in. The ship is a metaphor for the game engine which we sail on through
and explore the ocean of the game space. The game is an exotic holiday that takes
us far away from our everyday lives. Although rather obvious, this image does,
hopefully, signify the scale and complexity of the code of interaction for even
apparently simple games.
We have seen that interaction is a complex code that game players employ
somewhat effortlessly in learning to play new games and in the playing of games
they are familiar with. The code of interaction does not refer to the gameplay of a
particular game but to the rules we have learned, often intuitively, by playing games
and coming to understand their general characteristics. In a real sense all we did in
the previous chapter was to try to put into words and theory that we already knew
in some nonverbal, nontheoretical, largely unconscious fashion.
Just to make sure we're all clear as to what the code of interaction is all about,
let's discuss it in terms of a couple of games we studied earlier in the topic: Breakout
and Shenmue. There will also be an exercise for you to do at the end of this chapter.
Can you guess what it is?
So, imagine you've just started up Breakout; the game loads and then . . . what?
The white square that is the “ball” appears just below the darker rectangles that are
“bricks” in the “wall” and moves downward at an angle; the fi rst and only attractor.
The only sensible intention to form, if you're trying to win, that is, is to get the
paddle to the place where the ball is headed at the bottom of the screen so you can
bat it back upwards. The perceivable consequence you want is the ball heading back
up the screen toward the wall. The reward is a brick dislodged and a new attractor,
the same one essentially. Everything sets off again, the cycle of interaction repeats
itself; the propeller turns; the ship moves forward. There is a weak narrative potential
as the cycles progress and, hopefully, the bricks in the wall are removed. There is
perhaps a loss of self but not transformation as such, no co-presence but it can be
quite gripping so there might be presence for a while at least. The inside-out code
will come into play for a while as you work out how the bounces work, the angles
of defl ection, and how the lives and points change. There are no social codes. Well,
there is the word “Breakout,” a powerful signifi er of prison and fi lms about prison
escapes. Yes, social codes even apply to Breakout. It's still a great game and
analyzing it using our methods and the Code of Interaction gives us some insight as
to why.
Shenmue is, as we know by now, going to be quite different. For a start, we are
not going to be able to give a complete characterization of its code of interaction,
just a fl avor, a glimpse. But here goes. Very early in the game—you still haven' t got
much further than the quiet suburb where you live with you grandmother— you are
walking down the street and there is a shrine on your left. You hear a cat meowing
in a rather pathetic way. Inside the shrine you fi nd a kitten, a few months old, that