Saturday 2 November 2013

Week 9 - Why Retrogaming?

      While we don't speak of "retroreading" or "retrolistening", the practice of replaying old video games seem like a counter-intuitive initiative to many. Indeed, why would people spend time replaying old and outdated games while the contemporary offer for new and technically advanced video games are released each week? The video game industry is a business that thrives on "hyping" future products, sometimes making your last 6 months-old software purchase valueless in the process. The game industry, unlike the publishing or music industry, has issues dealing with its past in a meaningful way. We can relate those problems to the multiple challenges of recreating the specificity of old platforms as well as going back to archaic gameplay features that sometimes created very unenjoyable experiences for gamers. But mainly, those problems are related to the business world of the video game industry: the game industry is forward-looking and dividing one's attention between old software and the latest releases is not profitable in financial terms.

Cultural capital? (from Famiconblog)
     However, this does not mean that gamers blindly follow the industry's lead on the consumption of the newest digital experiences. As Suominen described in his article, retrogaming can take many forms. From the enthusiast on a mission to enjoy of the supposedly "purest" form of gameplay to the fan on a quest to collect all memorabilia of a certain franchise, gaming culture has matured enough so that at least a small part of gamers look back on those ludic objects, willing to find new forms of appreciation or criticism. With the advent of internet communication, retrogaming, as a cultural practice, is bounding thousand of players from around the world around those nostalgic experiences. In a sense, internet forums are the new school yards where hints, secrets and high scores can be posted to help fellow gamers or just for bragging purposes. The television show Game Center CX (first introduced by Sonja this term) easily represent how important communities are to the practice of retrogaming. The show itself is oriented around the character of the Kacho leading a fictional company that beats retrogames in 24 hours. However, the Kacho (despite his best intentions) is helpless and can never finish games himself. He always relies on his team of subordinates (actual gamers) to help him finish the hardest levels. Similarly, other parts of the show involves the Kacho calling television viewers randomly to ask them for hints to beat particularly obscure games. Community-making and audience participation seems to me what makes the success of retrogaming.


Kacho plays Kage
 
 
      In his article, Suominen also cites Newman, saying that retrogaming can sometimes be seen by gamers as a return to the "purest" forms of gameplay where all modern additions that seemingly plagues today's video games (probably aiming for mainstream appeal) are absent. Indeed, retrogames are notorious for their difficulty, and beating an especially difficult game can be seen as a high achievement in certain communities. That being said, it is striking to me how those ideas around retrogaming combine into the creation of what we could see as an alternative set of "cultural capital" of gamers. The notion of intrinsic value of playing, let's say, Megaman 3 over the latest Call of Duty game seem to be definitely present in the connoisseur discourse of video games just like Bourdieu identified the practice of tennis as linked to a certain social standing in France during his time.

Japanese retrogame shop. Part shop, part museum.


     On a more pragmatic level, old games also seem to have value in what they represent (history, landmark) rather than for their entertainment value for many people. In this way, they can shape into a form of commodity with their own set of value that fluctuate from time to time. Many retrogaming youtubers pride themselves with the knowledge the of trade value of games on the market rather than playing them, not unlike fine art collectors (since video games are more of a consumer product than an individualized work of art, collecting them is much more affordable and open of anyone). In this sense, old games can become akin to a commodity embedded with cultural capital that are meant to be circulated.

Participants are challenged to guess the price of retro Famicon games in a Japanese game show. (From Famiconblog)


Game Center CX videos with English subtitles: http://www.gamingcx.com/p/gccx-videos.html
Famiconblog: http://famicomblog.blogspot.ca/

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