Village of the year

Recently i have re-watched Edgar Wright's Action comedy Hot Fuzz and i have decided to talk about it and how it ties in with our Utopia and dystopia studies. The movie is about a top London police officer Nicholas Angel who is transferred from the city to the quaint fictional village of Sanford, Gloucestershire (Wells, Somerset in reality) after being too good at his job. Now in the country he has to apply his experience towards enforcing the law.

After settling in to his new surroundings Nicholas is shown around the police station in which he discovers that the squad is incompetent and ill-equipped. He is also introduced to the neighbourhood watch and to a local supermarket owned by a shifty manager Simon Skinner. Things begin to get bloody when a couple get decapitated by a road sign after speeding into it. Suspiciously the brakes weren't applied. After the death of two men and a woman caused by a gas explosion, falling church masonry and a pair of hedge clippers in the neck Nicholas begins to delve into the cause of the deaths.

When putting the murder cases towards his disbelieving colleagues, Nicholas is told that the alleged murders were only accidents much to his disbelief. Angel starts digging through the local papers to find evidence, presenting his evidence and an arrest warrant to Simon Skinner, Nicholas is proved wrong.  After hearing a suggestion from a corner shop keeper alluding towards a ring of killers Nicholas insists to his superior that Angel was right, he is let down easily and is told to sleep on it until tomorrow.

When Nicholas arrives at his hotel room he is assaulted by the hulking yet simple trolley boy. Nicholas defeats him by smashing a plant pot on his head, dropping a walkey-talkey on the floor. He heads towards the castle mentioned by the man on the radio. Nicholas finds out that the Watch were behind the deaths. The chief tells Nicholas that the neighbourhood watch murdered the victims because they posed a threat to the village of the year competition, killing anyone who would jeopardise their track record. When being chased Nicholas discovers "the problems" that were dealt with from under age drinkers, a shoplifter, living statue and gypsy caravans.

When Danny pretends to stab Nicholas in the heart he drops Angel on the outskirts of village, telling him to return to London and never come back. Nicholas returns to the village to enact justice upon the neighbourhood watch. After rallying the police force to his cause they assault the supermarket to arrest Skinner but he escapes. After pursuing Skinner and Frank Butterman via police cars, Nicholas engages and overcomes Skinner and arrests Frank, restoring order to Sanford.

There is the exchange between Nicholas and Frank that involves the lines "This is the best village, Nicholas" and "They're [the towns people] living in a dream world". This best sums up a dystopia being flawed".

My thoughts on Gender

One of the subjects we have covered in the contextual studies lectures has been gender and the gaze. The gaze refers to how women are depicted in art and film as objects to be looked at and of male desire. Throughout art men have always been shown as active and powerful beings. This is most prevalent in ancient sculptures which tend to present male figures partake in activities such as discus throwing and, in one instance strangling a Python. 

Women on the other hand have been depicted as passive and submissive which is shown in paintings that display women being almost naked and not looking directly at whomever is viewing the painting. In the realm of cinema during the 20th century this didn't change much. The female characters in these movies tended to only fulfil the purpose of being a trophy and an object of desire for the leading male character. The concept of the gaze is most prevalent in Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window. In this film the male character has a broken leg and has to use a wheelchair, while he is confined the man uses binoculars to look in on the other residents of the apartment's lives.

 In the Alien films, this convention of the female character being passive is thrown out the window. I will only examine the first film in the series. This movie follows the crew of  the towing ship Nostromo as it returns to earth. After unintentionally bringing an alien on board the crew of the ship attempt to destroy it. Warrant officer Ripley, played by Sigourney Weaver is unlike the other heroines due to the fact that she is a driving force for good in the story despite the presence of the male crew members. Ripley doesn't run to any of the male characters during the aliens' rampage.

In video games during the early generations of consoles, the theme of a damsel in distress prevails. Mario is a notable example of this. However, Metroid does away with this because the player, unknowingly until the end of the game is playing a female character called Samus. Coincidentally, Metroid was inspired by Alien from the strong female lead character Samus and down to the villan, Ridley named after the director of the first film, Ridley Scott.

During the mid-to late 90s another playable heroine arrives on the PlayStation, her name is Lara Croft otherwise known as tomb Raider. Recently the titular heroine has had a change of character in the recent instalment. She is no longer a sex symbol, now Lara is a more realistic character with proper characterisation and less sexualised. The damsel in distress motif seems to be less prevalent recently, maybe this is due to the rise of a previously small demographic of female gamers. The increase of women as gamers does come with the issue of perception and identity of the gender in gaming as a medium. While there are some very strong and independent female characters, these character traits are usually exaggerated far too much and don't provide a middle ground in which some female gamers can relate to.

Maybe an evenly balanced female character is a step in the right direction for equality of women in videogames.

Dystopia and Utopia

In response to a recent lecture I have been asked to find an example of a utopia and a dystopia from video games.  My first example of a dystopia is from the game Mirror's Edge.  The game is set in an urban environment that is depicted in bright and clean light where crimes are non-existent and the population is a lot more comfortable.  On the surface this may not sound like a dystopia but from playing the game you will discover what goes on behind closed doors.  In the game world information and postal deliveries are heavily monitored by the government, there is an illusion of democracy and any people or groups of people that rebel against the system are brutally dealt with by the police.  

In game the player controls a parkour courier called a "runner" whose job is to deliver important packages without the government intercepting them and, according to the player the government is a malicious, Omni present entity.  The game touches on the theme that if a certain way of life has a lot of benefits and is more efficient it doesn't necessarily mean that it's the only way to live.

Women in video games

In our lecture we have been looking at the role of women in video games. Today i'm going to talk about two games that show women as a trophy for the troubles of the protagonist.

Resident Evil 4

The plot of Resident Evil 4 is about a federal agent, Leon who is sent by the US president to rescue his daughter Ashley. Already we have the basic story about rescuing a damsel in distress. Leon has to fight through infected villagers, giant bugs and other creatures in order to rescue Ashley. At parts in the game the player has to escort Ashley through a few levels, commanding her to hide when the player encounters enemies to reach the end.

 The player must make sure that no enemies carry her off which results in a game over, however, during cut-scenes Ashley sometimes runs away from Lean (for some reason) or gets captured by the enemy (this happens more than once) which in turn results in her being next to useless. This relates to men being active and women being passive.

In contrast to the damsel in distress there is another female character named Ada who is more independent than Ashley. The player first meets Ada during a cut-scene when a gun is pressed against Leon's back, Ada orders him to not move in which Leon retorts "Following a ladies' lead isn't my style". This quote seems to reflect the notion that only men are the ones who give orders.

The Gaze can be applied to Ada in respects to her attire. She wears a red, slightly revealing dress, very odd choice for a secret operative to be wearing. This effects Leon in one instance in which Ada gives the player a lift to the final phase of the game, when the boat pulls up to the island Ada grapple hooks on to the island which distracts Leon causing him to loose control of the boat.

After the last boss, Ada betrays Leon by forcing him to hand over the cure he had acquired earlier, but due to his assistance she gives him the keys to a jet ski to escape with. The portrays the notion that woman only impedes the mans' progress in his quest.

Ico

Ico is about a boy whom the game is named after and a young girl named Yorda. The player controls Ico who is imprisoned in a castle due to being born with two horns. The player happens upon Yorda who is imprisoned as well, the player must lead Yorda; usually by the hand through the castle, solving puzzles and defending her from shadowy creatures that can carry her away. This is very similar to Resident Evil in which the male character is in charge and the female character is commanded around.

Ico deviates from this however because of the fact that the player needs Yorda to complete puzzles, activate player sensitive objects and to carry on to the next level. The game allows a bond to be created between the player (Ico) and Yorda which helps to detract away from the fact she is scatterbrained and unable to defend herself.  This reletates to the female being the incentive for the player but this is averted slightly due to the fact that the relationship between the characters is that of friendship. Also Yorda isn't completely useless because of her integral role to the story and gameplay.

Orientalism

In our lectures, we were looking at Orientalism and the Other. The subject of post colonialism was brought up first which was about the impact and aftermath of European domination and colonising of non-European countries and its people along with its culture. Subjects such as art, literature and thought have been effected by the colonisation of other countries because of the idea that westerners want to spread their ideals on the natives which in turn removes its people from its roots and cements the colonists rule.

Next we were introduced to the works of Edward Said, especially his book Orientalism. Here he talks about the representation of the Orient and how it presents the notion that the west is right and east is wrong. For example; the west has its own history while the east has it imposed on them, the west is rational while the east is irrational and the west has masculine demeanour of activity and domination while the east has feminine features of submission and possession.

Afterwards we looked at how the west visualises the east through art and and other media. We looked at a painting by Rudolf Ernst called "A sultan with a tiger". As the title suggests, the painting has a sultan astride a tiger under an archway of an eastern palace. The problem is that the image is a mixture of elements from different parts of the east, the painting is supposed to represent India. This is known as a Pastiche. Another example is from an old P&O poster depicting a decorated elephant with an equally colourful procession. It helps project an exotic impression but falls short in the truth department. From these examples i think that the east lost their identity and tried to emulate what the posters were displaying and advertising.

Then we looked at the "other" which means how the east has helped the west in creating contrasts in image, personality and experience. The other refers to the differentiation between what is familiar to the west and how it perceives the east as different and unconventional. This gives colonists the excuse to pry into the "others" land and changing the east to suit the west's needs. A closing statement from Said mentions how imperialism imposes history on the country and how it destroys the culture and ethics of the land and creates an order that the imposing force finds pleasing. I think this is how stereotypes come around.

We moved from history and art to Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner" and how it deals with orientalism, colonisation and agency. Blade Runner is set in the early 21st century where highly advanced robots called Replicants are used as slave labourers and planet exploration. The film is about a squad of special police called "Blade Runners" in which their job is to execute Replicants who have recently been declared illegal on earth. Empathy tests are used to root out Replicants from the crowds of humans entering the country/planet, the examiner asks a theoretical question which will incur a emotional response.

The message the film conveys is about how colonialism creates it own culture from a mix of other cultures, most prominent is Oriental. This is very similar to the colonialisation of America due to the mix of different nationalities such as the Irish, German, English nationalities and many others. In the Film there is character named Gaff who is more or less a physical manifestation of the language in the city. Gaff speaks in a language that is a mix of European and Asian dialects. The culture in this future is what happens when the west changes  the meaning entirely of an eastern culture and amalgamating it into one entity. This removes the original meaning and creates a hollow and meaningless culture. A good example of this is the blue dragon. the west associates it with a Chinese restaurant.

The subject of Agency is brought up in film through the Replicants. Agency refers to how a culture or colony are able self-represent. In the film, the Replicants return to earth to seek out their creator in order to increase their life spans that are 4 years long. The leader of the androids only wants the best for his kind even if it is very violent. I think that agency is best explained in this movie.

Overall i think that Orientalism and post-colonialism theory does somewhat ring true today in the media and society. A good example for Orientalism in society is Chinatown. It is a vision of the east from the west's perspective, it is a form of entertainment at the expense of the east and it is a pastiche of China. To those who have travelled from China to the west probably would find this hodge-podge of Asian artefacts in one small space either hilariously or offensively inaccurate and misinformed.

Choice in Video Games

In our second presentation we decided to base it around choice. The presentation was shared between me and Ryan because of the miraculous disappearance of our other two group members. I was handling the binary choice while Ryan did the multiple choice. In my presentation i made some comparisons between Lionhead's Fable and Arkane Studios' Dishonored in regards to the players' involvement in making decisions in game.

In Fable the game will present a fork in the narrative's path and player must decide on the best course of action depending on the player's judgement. This only affects the story and characters but not largely on the gameplay and difficulty. Dishonored on the other hand presents choice and it's ramifications on the majority of the gameplay. How the player carries out the missions; lethal or non-lethal, will have effects on the placement of guards and security in the next level. It will also affect the ending.

I finished off the presentation with an explanation; according to today, of where the future of choice in gaming will go. Choices are presented through the gameplay instead of being shown on a menu, binary choice might not have a future in gaming due to its on and off functionality and choice is more reaction based were the things i mentioned.

I am very pleased with the comparisons between the games and the definitions. I think i could of explained the slides more clearly but i am still content with it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonlinear_gameplay - slide 1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeon_(video_game) - slide 2

http://bitmob.com/articles/the-ultimate-binary-choice-heaven-hell slide 1

http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/top10/2217.html slide 2

Narrative spaces

Evoked Narratives work a lot like theme park rides in the sense that the player already has a some knowledge about the ride's source material but not how it will be presented. The game would play off of what the gamer already know of the original theme and throwing him or her into the game world in which they interact with.

Enacting Stories function similarly to assault and obstacle courses where the player's only goal is to reach the end by negotiating objects such as pits and climbing walls to reach the objective. The  game's goal would be the story and that the player would have to obtain it by traversing levels in order to cross the world, achieving victory.

Embedded Narrative usually feature two stories playing out side by side. One being unstructured  in which the player pieces together the story by exploring the game world and the other which is pre-structured; already built in to the world, waiting for the player to discover it. Similar to an Easter egg hunt in the fact someone has to hide the eggs and others have to find them.

Emergent Narratives are in the player's control in respects that the player can create their characters and other aspects of the game, giving the player free reign to enact their own stories. However, the player does have a limit to what he or she can do. The overall narrative is pre-structured but always being moulded like plasticine by the player.