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By The Gamer, September 6, 2009 4:06 pm

May contain spoilers. Beware.

It’s pretty obvious that I’m a big Silent Hill fan. I’m hoping to do a lot with the series (along with the Fatal Frame series, Rule of Rose, the Final Fantasy series and Ico/Shadow of the Colossus/Unnamed New Game) academically. I’m thinking up topics for papers right now actually. Anyway, whenever I come across a scholarly look at a video game, I take note. Well, guess what I found.

The May issue of Camera Obscura contains an article called Masculinity in Video Games: The Gendered Gameplay of Silent Hill. Ewan Kirkland, a lecturer at Kingston University in the UK, has written a number of articles on video games and seems to focus on the Silent Hill series and survival horror in general. Here’s the abstract for the forthcoming (I say forthcoming because it’s not available to me yet) article:

The article looks at the concept of masculinity in the video game “Silent Hill 2,” created by Konami. It delves in the issues concerning the ending to “Silent Hill 2,” such as the player agency, the structuring of gameplay, and the gendering of the role that video-game players are invited to perform. It notes that the only way to finish the game is for the protagonist James to kill his wife Mary. The author points out that such portion in the game may be perceived as a video-game misogyny which features a male protagonist killing creatures of monstrous femininity, or presented a perverted world defining the psychological interior of a tortured man consumed by bitterness, resentment, and conflicting feelings of love and hatred toward a woman he had to kill at the end.

I’m not entirely sure how I feel about the author’s claim, or even what his opinion of it is. Unfortunately, right now, I can’t access the full article. Whenever I can, I’ll be sure to do a write-up. I suppose it could be seen as misogynistic if you look at the face value of James killing nurses, but it’s deeper than that, as the end of the abstract indicates. It’s complicated. That’s why it’s a good topic to study.

In the meantime, Ewan has written a very interested piece on Alessa Gillespie, the child/teenager/monster/driving force behind Silent Hill in the first and third releases in the series. It’s called Alessa Unbound: The Monstrous Daughter of Silent Hill and is the first piece in section two of Dark Reflections, Monstrous Reflections: Essays on the Monster in Culture. Click here for the PDF. There’s some other really interesting stuff in the ebook, so check it out. Here’s the abstract for Ewan’s piece on Alissa:

This paper explores the figure of Alessa, the ambiguous monster of the Silent Hill videogame series. Focusing on the game’s first and third installments, Alessa is discussed as revealing interconnected anxieties surrounding motherhood and childhood. Horrific images of birth, abortion and maternity pervade the games, together with unsettling signifiers of children and childhood. Firstly Barbra Creed’s psychoanalytic discussion of the monstrous feminine is used to examine Silent Hill in terms of maternity. Accordingly, Alessa embodies the abject mother, evident in pervading imagery of bodily fluids, particularly blood and excrement, across the series. Next I explore Alessa as monstrous child, employing Robin Wood’s discussion of children in horror cinema. Here Alessa’s monstrousness resides in her horrific childhood, communicated through Silent Hill’s dark and malignant alternative dimensions. This ambiguous disposition toward the arcane mother and parental authority is partially resolved through the games’ endings, involving the re-assertion of patriarchal power. Finally, I argue, Alessa symbolises cultural fears that adult/child distinctions may be disrupted as children transcend their infant or adolescent status, by becoming parents themselves.

I will say that Kirkland takes the right approach to studying these games, inasfar as he takes them seriously.  Case in point, he says the following things in the introduction (p.74) of Alessa Unbound:

• I will not be justifying the study of videogames.
• I shall not be relating figures concerning the revenues the industry accrues, nor drawing apologetic parallels between videogames [and other] media.
• I shall be exploring [the games] as narratives….
• I shall be taking these games seriously for the complex cultural texts I believe them to be.

Couldn’t agree more. I’m looking forward to reading more of his work, especially on Silent Hill. For anyone interested, a user by the name of  SilentPyramind (and a number of others) on GameFAQs have put together a rather extensive and deep look into the mythology and logic of the Silent Hill universe which, unfortunately, hasn’t been updated since 2007 and thus is not containing the newest additions to the series. Still, as far as Silent Hill and Silent Hill 3 go, it’s worth a look.

Citations:

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By The Gamer, September 3, 2009 10:21 am

Speaking of exergaming, there’s good news for all those kids out there who suck at sports!

A brand new piece from the journal Computers & Education performs a literature review of recent scientific articles regarding computer games and their utility in physical education and health education. Marina Papastergiou from the University of Thessaly in Greece is the author. Here’s the abstract:

This study aims at critically reviewing recently published scientific literature on the use of computer and video games in Health Education (HE) and Physical Education (PE) with a view: (a) to identifying the potential contribution of the incorporation of electronic games as educational tools into HE and PE programs, (b) to present a synthesis of the available empirical evidence on the educational effectiveness of electronic games in HE and PE, and (c) to define future research perspectives concerning the educational use of electronic games in HE and PE. After systematically searching online bibliographic databases, 34 relevant articles were located and included in the study. Following the categorization scheme proposed by [Dempsey, J., Rasmussen, K., & Lucassen, B. (1996). The instructional gaming literature: Implications and 99 sources. University of South Alabama, College of Education, Technical Report No. 96-1], those articles were grouped into the following four categories: (a) research, (b) development, (c) discussion and (d) theory. The overviewed articles suggest that electronic games present many potential benefits as educational tools for HE and PE, and that those games may improve young people’s knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours in relation to health and physical exercise. Furthermore, the newly emerged physically interactive electronic games can potentially enhance young people’s physical fitness, motor skills and motivation for physical exercise. The empirical evidence to support the educational effectiveness of electronic games in HE and PE is still rather limited, but the findings present a positive picture overall. The outcomes of the literature review are discussed in terms of their implications for future research, and can provide useful guidance to educators, practitioners and researchers in the areas of HE and PE, and to electronic game designers. [Copyright 2009 Elsevier]

Literature reviews are always useful in that it a) provides a scholarly look at the research pertinent to one area, and b) someone else does all the work for you.

This review, for example, finds that:

1. Gaming can be of potential benefit to students in the realms of health and physical education
2. Proof of this is limited, but that is a function of how much research has been done, rather than a lack of positive evidence
3. The relatively new “exergaming” genre deserves special attention due to its potential

I don’t want to seem like I’m focusing on exergaming, it just happens to be what I’ve come across frequently as of late. What worries me is if some developer jumps on this and starts creating games specifically for exercising (don’t confuse that with Wii Fit, as that is specifically made to be a commercial money-maker; I’m talking about something like “e-Pilates” or “Virtual Weightlifting” or something). That tends to be the problem with well-intentioned serious or educational games: the message is the focus and the gameplay is secondary. Don’t take my word for it. Take it from Ernest Adams, author of Fundamentals of Game Design: the most common fatal mistake that befalls game designers is to put the message before the game.

So, while I would champion anything that gets kids off their butts and moving, I really, really hope the games are good. First impressions are so important, you know?

Citation:
Papastergiou, M. (2009). Exploring the potential of computer and video games for health and physical education: A literature review. Computers & Education, 53(3), 603-622.

Comments (1)

By The Gamer, August 28, 2009 11:59 am

I’ve started a page that lists pertinent journals and publications involving video games and education. It can be found here. I hope to update it whenever I find another, and also make a post about what I’m updating. If you can think of any that I’ve omitted, please leave me a comment and let me know!

This is also where I will list Calls for Papers. Remember, you don’t need to be writing high-concept, academic, scholarly articles in order to get published! Many of these journals also take video game reviews or “musings.” Check them out.

Either click here or on the Journals and Publications page listed in the header.

Comments (0)

By The Gamer, August 26, 2009 3:19 pm

I’ve begun this site as a way to bring all my thoughts, research, findings, etc., together in one place. I will soon begin working on a Ph.D in Instructional Technology during which I will be focusing on using commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) games as texts. How? Well, that’s what we’re here to find out. Maybe it would be an examination of urban planning and construction in the cities of Assassin’s Creed. Maybe it’s a look at how sound and music incite physical changes and stress while playing Silent Hill 2. Maybe it’s psychoanalyzing Cloud from Final Fantasy VII. Maybe it’s the interpersonal relationship between Alxy Vance and Gordon Freeman in the Half Life 2 Episodes (an interesting prospect, considering Gordon never speaks).

Also, there will be links to journals or other articles/blog posts/reports that focus on gaming or instructional technology.

This site is not about educational games. I am not particularly interested in games that are specifically made to be educational. There may be some references made to them, but it is at its heart about commercial video games and the potential they have in the classroom. Any blogs that wish to be listed here can email me at gamesSYMBOLanamericanintaiwanDOTcom. You know what to do.

Check out the official GAT Twitter feed at the top of the page, as well as the post RSS and comments RSS feeds.

Here we go.