Seriously…

 

This week’s articles approached the topics of rationalization and instrumentality in computer games from a social science perspective, which resulted in a number of discussions about achievement systems, playbour, the role of play within the broader cultural sphere as well as Facebook games. During the lecture the case team furthermore presented some interesting examples of rationalization and instrumentality in play such as the badge system in Foursquare, the Volkswagen commercial with the piano stairs as well as the Panopticonic surveillance in Farmville.

In the article The Achievement Machine Mikael Jakobson presented an ethnographic examination of the achievement system on the Xbox360 gaming console, and he furthermore pointed out that “[…] the achievement system is […] a massively multiplayer online game (MMO) where separate achievements are the functional equivalent of quests.” Furthermore, Jakobson decided to subdivide the players on Xbox LIVE into three different categories called the achievement casuals, the achievement hunters as well as the achievement completist, since he discovered that some people actually enjoyed spending an enormous amount of time on unlocking the most difficult achievements within the computer games. Mark Silverman and Bart Simon likewise highlighted the somewhat invisible border between play and labour within modern computer game in the article Discipline and Dragon Kill Points in the Online Power Game, which is why “[…] good work can no longer be understood as such in relation to play. Now, good work is play […] many power gamers do not describe their game experiences in terms of fun or joy […]” And one could therefore argue that both the achievement hunter as well as the power gamer have attempted to rationalization or instrumentalize the more ludic experiences inside the computer game in order to become more effective players, since […] power gamers approach gameplay as a problem soluble through collective hard work as they ‘‘grind’’ away to collect the levels, reputations, and resources they need to engage in the primary goal […].”

The achievement system for the Xbox360 gaming console could therefore be understood as postmodern playbour, which often encourages the achievement hunter to perform a mundane or repetitive task inside the virtual game spaces one thousand times in order to acquire a small badge on his Xbox LIVE profile. For instance, in the computer game Gears of War the so-called ‘Seriously…’ achievement will instruct the achievement hunter to ‘Kill 10.000 people in versus ranked match total’, which could take the more inexperienced player several weeks worth of playing time to acquire. At some point the repetitive grind surrounding the ‘Seriously…’ achievement will therefore cease being fun and instead turn into postmodern playbour, which is why the achievement hunter often must attempt to locate different exploits or grinds that could help him acquire the required kills much faster. Different online forums such as xbox360achievements.org and achievementhunters.org will also help the achievement hunter devise effective strategies for the most difficult or time-consuming achievements in a specific computer game, since the “Achievement hunters typically care more about the accumulated gamerscore than getting all the achievements in any given game. Their approach is to deplete a game of all its time efficient achievements as quickly as possible and then move on.”

The philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamar has in the book Truth and Method highlighted the paradoxical that “[…] the game masters the players. [...] The real subject of the game [...] is not the players but the game itself.”, and one could likewise ask whether the achievement hunters in fact are played by the ergodic state-machine rather than the other way around. Furthermore, the achievement system for the Xbox360 has resulted in a number of discussions inside the game design communities about the ludic values behind intrinsic rewards versus extrinsic rewards, which Roger Caillois’ classic distinction between ludus and paidia could help elaborate further upon. According to Caillois, paidia should be understood as the more improvisational or unstructured play-forms that “[…] effects an immediate and disordered agitation, an impulsive and easy recreation, but readily carried to excess, whose impromptu and unruly character remains its essential if not unique reason for being”. On the other hand, ludus should instead encapsulate the more rule-bound or structured play-forms that is “[…] complementary to and a refinement of paidia, which it disciplines and enriches. It provides an occasion for […] a particular mastery of the operation of one or another contraption or the discovery of a satisfactory solution to problems […]”, which resonates with Jakobson’s descriptions of the so-called achievement hunter. Some game designers have therefore argued that the achievement system on the Xbox360 gaming console in fact affords for a much more narrow as well as disciplined ludic experience, where the state-machine often could play the achievement hunter rather than the other way around. Furthermore, the achievement hunter must interact with the computer game in according to the preferred player model that the game designers have chosen to inscribe into the achievement badges, which in the end could leave little room for the more emergent or paidiac experiences.

Throughout the last decade both the game designers and the game reviewers have furthermore praised the more emergent or paidiac computer game titles such as Minecraft as well as Little Big Planet, and the achievement systems have therefore been understood as these much more behaviouristic or conservative elements that do not leverage the player’s creative imagination in any way. For instance, imagine that Marcus ‘Notch’ Persson had chosen to implement an achievement system into Minecraft, which instructed the player to construct specific buildings or structures such as the Brooklyn Bridge as well as the Eiffel Tower in order to acquire the achievement badges. Such an achievement system would probably have ruined the emergent as well as paidiac appeal behind the Minecraft universe, and the indie computer games for the personal computer could therefore become an important counter-example for the different achievements badges or trophies on the modern generation of gaming consoles. However, the game designers have to a certain extend always dictated the player’s ludic experiences inside the game world through the different affordances as well as constraints within the gameplay mechanics, but the modern achievement systems made this paradoxical power relationship between the achievement hunter and the underlying state-machine much more obvious and apparent.