Introduction- What is Literature?
Attempts to define literature have been just as varied and conflicting as they are numerous. In 18th century England, where literature meant little more than “the entire body of valued writing”, the now-considered “classic novel” was held with serious uncertainty (Eagleton, 15). Then, according to TS Eliot, Literature- especially poetry- became something that should not only rejected the likes of John Milton and the later romantic poets, but wasn’t meant to engage the minds of readers at all (35).
Then came the Structarlists. Suddenly, Literature was not so much about communicating an argument, or telling moral story, or presenting an ambiguity as it was about existing- suspended above all else- as an independent structure of words, sentences, symbols, themes, and so on (85).
Electronic Literature, especially popular roleplaying games such as Final Fantasy, can obviously not hold literary value under the previous methods of literary criticism. While the plotlines of many games may very well have some didactic or moral significance, while others may present the reader with ambiguities, and while more so, such as the God of War or the Final Fantasy series (which this study borrows so heavily from) may include a plethora of symbols and poetic devices, previous forms of criticism simply cannot account for the complete difference in medium.
If there is any hope for videogame literature, or electronic literature at all, it is not through an apologetic settling of differences between video games and other more conventional forms of literary criticism. It can only occur through accepting the modernist and postmodernist view that text is something to be played with – regardless of underlying structure.
Like all text, games are not created equally. Though all games include a common element of playfulness, that is only the point of departure. Some games, like Folk stories, follow a typical structure or “sphere of action”, for example “the hero, the helper, the villain, the person (or object) sought for”, and so on (Eagleton 91). Other games interweave several plots, and create complex Narratives that require the reader to navigate Labyrinths that are both textual and non textual. Some games have no textual element at all, and include only an element of interactivity.
The Monsters and the Critics
In the fifth part of her essay Electronic Literature, Where is It?, Dene Grigar rightly asserts that the solution “to making the public more aware of elit lies in rethinking our notion of literacy”(Grigar). The problem with Grigar’s assertion is not the challenge raised to readers, authors, and educators to reevaluate traditional conceptions of what is and what is not literature, but the dismal reluctance of her ( and most others in the field of those who study elit) to consider a certain extremely popular variety of hypertext fiction which contain Aarseth’s necessary qualifiers description, narrative, and ergodics(Aarseth, 63). That is, the modern role playing game (RPG) and other narrative oriented games, mainly those of the Final Fantasy[1] and Metal Gear Solid variety.
The point of this essay is not to show how popular games redefine the role of the classic novel, because, frankly, they can’t. The point is also not to cut certain video games in front of some of electronic literature’s most celebrated works, like Michael Joyce’s Afternoon(1990). Rather, it is to win a place for video games in a discussion from which they’ve been unfairly and counter-productively marginalized. As Aarseth writes in his Cybertext book, video games have the potential to be “something rich and wonderful (107)”, not quite the same as a novel, but also not exempt from any literary discourse. First, however, it seems useful to examine some of the reasons why literary criticism applied to video games seems so off the mark to those who actually play games.
Aarseth’s statement is not without its problems. It, as well as his earlier claim that “despite the lavish and quite expensive graphics of [video games], player’s creative options are just as limited as they were in 1976 (103)”, omits that by the book’s publication date in 1997, some video games had already reached literary milestones of which Aarseth and even his later co-theorists are obviously unaware. When it comes to games, literary theorists writing about electronic literature are quick to reference classic titles such as Adventure(1976) and Myst(1993). Those games, while important for their historical significance, are hardly representative of the genre’s most impressive feats and do not even come close to representing the creative peak that some game creators have reached.
As well as picking the wrong games, theorists who assert games are literature do it wrongly. Often, they attempt to demonstrate how simple platform video games like Super Mario Brothers are literary by evoking postmodernist literary theories such as it is the job of the reader to fill in the blanks left by the author and thus, in creating his own story, become the co-author. That very well may be true, and there is a place in the discourse for those types of games. However, It seems that while trying to find traces of literature in video games, literary theorists overlook (and are mostly likely altogether ignorant of) the games that really count. A brief conversation with a local Gamestop or EB Games employee would reveal to many theorists that there are many successful console and PC titles that can receive realistic, and quite “literary” critiques.
Rather than dwelling on early and severely lacking prototypes, or more recent “pulp” games like Tomb Raider II (1997), Tekken (1995) and Mortal Kombat(1992) as Mark Wolf does in his book The Medium of the Video Game(100-106), theorists should be focusing on more ambitious and aesthetically satisfying titles such as Final Fantasy Tactics (1997) and Hideo Kojima’s Metal Gear Solid (1998). While an extensive knowledge of the classics and recent chart toppers is important and deeply appreciated, those seeking some kind of literary critique-able work must look elsewhere.
Metal Gear Solid
Kojima’s Metal Gear Solid, of the “Tactical Espionage Action” genre, features groundbreaking gameplay[2] that is regularly interrupted by story driven sections which take the form of cinematic sequences and script-like radio conversations of varying length. In fact, one reviewer of a popular gaming website, Gamespot, wrote that “[the game] stands more like a work of art than as an actual game (Gertson).”
The plot, though much too long and complex to go into here, is set in a post Cold War world where a retired soldier, aliased Solid Snake, has been assigned to infiltrate a military-industrial complex inhabited by a private military terrorist force who are capable of launching a nuclear missile. Though here the game’s basic plot would set the foundation for a decent spy or action movie, even without the subsequent hours of story driven cinema and text scenes, Kojima does not stop there. The major theme of the story, arguably the question of whether man is more than the product of his nature or nurture, is made manifest at several points of rising action, including Snake and Meryl’s[3] love, which exist and blooms despite dire circumstances and Meryl’s admittance that the government has eliminated her capacity for sexual desire[3]. The theme is also manifest in Snake’s eventual overcoming of his bother, Liquid. While Snake and Liquid are clones of a dead super-soldier[4], Liquid believes that he is the one who has received the parent’s inferior recessive genes. After Liquid has been overcome, it is revealed that Snake is, in fact, the brother with the undesirable genes. This (quite literal) portrayal of man refusing to be defined by his genetic code, and overcoming his nature, lends itself to the overall theme of the story the men are more than the sum of their parts.
Aside from representing very real concerns about the human condition, the game also raises several political concerns. What happens when not only opposing nations but terrorists factions have the power to launch nuclear warheads? What are the consequences of readily available nuclear weapons to the status of the United States as a hegemonic power?
Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy is an extremely popular and world-renown series that, though worlds apart from the gameplay of Metal Gear Solid, is of equal literary importance. Like Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy games include very coherent and sophisticated narratives. Also, as was the case with Metal Gear Solid, the narratives that present themselves between gameplay sections of Final Fantasy games often take up a significant portion of the game’s actual gameplay time. Though every Final Fantasy game is different, the various installments include several common themes and other reoccurring elements[5]. Like Metal Gear Solid, the internal struggles of the characters in Final Fantasy are often brought to the center stage as the main fantasy plot withdraws into the background (Craig). Common themes include, but are not limited to, love rivalry, corruptible power (a’la “The One Ring”), amnesiac heroes, post humanism, suicide, reluctance to accept technology, and Gaia theory (Vestal). The games also reference a slew of mythological entities, such as Odin and Gilgamesh, as gameplay elements and characters.
Loose Ends
Of course, not every game released on a console or a PC is worth literary consideration. Most importantly, the slew of modern games elit theorists have been tragically drawn to are not. As Aarseth points out, the notion that video games are like pop fiction, to be played once and then never again, is inherently incorrect (133). Video games need not be made subject to only postmodernist criticism or pulp status to be clearly defined, but can open up a wider realm of literary discussion. The problems recent theorist have had with video games, in fact, has very little to do with the medium and very much to do with the simple fact that theorists have been playing the wrong games[6].
Oddly enough, groundbreaking text based classics like Adventure, previously thought to be the product of a short lived genre which inevitable evolved with technology, have come into new popularity with hand held systems that have less graphical capability than consoles and PCs. DS games like Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney(2005) and Lux Pain(2009) offer complex, sometimes adult oriented, and almost wholly text oriented stories in the same fashion as popular e-novels. Other popular games, like Playstation 2’s Persona 4, have remained text based and were purposely released on last generation consoles. The significance is two-fold. First, it seems to provide an answer to the question of whether text will inevitably be replaced by voice and cinema. The answer is no. Just like some readers would rather buy a print book than read one online, some gamers will continue to want to play games that a simpler in nature than the next-gen’s current line-up for various reasons. Secondly, it provides a solution to the archiving problems experienced by many e-authors. According to Hayles, electronic literature can be “lost” if it isn’t archived. Programs become outdated, and today’s programs cannot always read yesterday’s data.
Today’s major consoles don’t have that problem. Games, though originated from a digital space, exist in meat-space too. People fill bookshelves up with old games for various systems, and console companies know that sometimes people like to revisit their old games. The Nintendo DS can play the gameboy games of previous generation. The XBOX 360 can play the games of the original XBOX. The Playstation 3 can play games from both the Playstation 2 and original Playstation, as well as download hard to find games from the Playstation online store[7]. It seems that while literary theorists were arguing over what electronic literature actually was, how it should be approached, whether it was dead or not, and how it should be archived, a perfectly legitimate form has existed (and will continue to exist) all along.
Footnotes
1.Though the Final Fantasy is hardly the best example of literary hypertext fiction, especially compared to highly thematic titles such as Persona 3 and Valkyre Profile, it is the most well known and the best selling (at least in the United States) and therefore is more accessible as an example than the games I’d like to represent in this essay.
2.Groundbreaking, for its time.
3.The failure of Meryl to become a slave to her nurture is also made manifest by one of the game’s two endings, when Meryl is shown hanging onto Snake with her legs wrapped around his waist. The “camera” focuses on both character’s torsos.
4.The dead “super-soldier” is villain in Kojima’s earlier, and much more primitive games, Metal Gear (1987) and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake (1990). Snake being a “clone” of big boss is obviously a reference to previous Metal Gear Canon. Though
I do not go into that question in this paper, “literary” games often reference their own Canon.
5.I’m resigned to speaking of Final Fantasy in general terms, and based on the research of others. While picking just one to make an example through my observations(as I did with Metal Gear) would be unfair to the rest of the series, covering all of the games twelve and episodes, as well as various spin-offs, movies, sequels, etc, would be an encyclopedic task.
6.They cannot, however, take exclusive blame. As a friend of mine pointed out over an AIM chat, 99% of all media is crap.
7.This means, essentially, that Playstation 3 owners have 15 years worth of videogame progress to play. The Wii, which has a limited selection of downloadable classics on its online store, allows an even broader timeframe for selection.
Works Cited
Griger, Dean. Electronic Literature: Where is It? http://www.electronicbookreview.com/thread/technocapitalism/invigorating. December 2008. Retrieved April 2009.
Aarseth, Espen J. Cybertexts. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1997.
Wolf, J.P. Mark. The Medium of the Videogame. USA: University of Texas Press, 2001.
Gertsman, Jeff. Metal Gear Solid Review. Gamespot: http://www.gamespot.com/ps/adventure/metalgearsolid/review.html. Posted Sept. 1998. Retrieved April 2009.
Kolan, Patrick. "The Evolution of Final Fantasy". IGN. http://au.ps2.ign.com/articles/756/756635p1.html. Retrieved on April 2008.
Vestal, Andrew. "The Main Final Fantasies". The History of Final Fantasy. GameSpot. http://www.gamespot.com/features/vgs/universal/finalfantasy_hs/sec1.html. Retrieved on April 2009.
Hayles, Katherine N. Electronic Literature: What is It? http://eliterature.org/pad/elp.html#sec0. Retrieved April 2009.
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