Don't hate the player, hate the game

The third chapter in Galloway’s book, “Social Realism”, discusses the concept of realism within video games and how “realism” itself should be defined and treated when discussing video games as an interactive medium.

Galloway brings up examples of games which play through “realistic scenarios” (i.e EA sports titles such as Madden Football) briefly to help lay ground work for what could be considered realistic game play. However, Galloway only brings up Madden to define “realism” within video games as something more than a realistic experience of scenario (despite the game play of a football game being realistic, it fails to maintain realism in other aspects such as perspective and narrative according to the player’s everyday life).

Galloway continues defining realism in game studies by discussing Italian neo-realism (bringing up Andre Bazin) to make a connection between realism and social critique. Galloway then suggests that game studies follow in the same line of critical thought in which Bazin viewed realism in film (realistic representation versus but also in addition to film or “games that reflect critically on the minutiae of everyday life.”) (Galloway, 75)

However, for Galloway, content (realism in narrative) and interaction (realism in game play) fall short when discussing video game realism (video games as a medium involve a different audience/player participation than film and require another layer of analysis). Presented in his earlier chapters, gamic action forms the linchpin that provides the base for his ideas on “social realism” within video games. In one example, Galloway refers to VIS Entertainment’s State of Emergency stating its “connection to realism is seen primarily in the representation of marginalized communities...instructing players to “smash the corporation.” (Galloway 77) Galloway depicts the game’s core functions of narrative and game play as experiential and a realistic representation of the social reality/affect behind violent riots (“like the Rodney King rebellion in Los Angeles” as Galloway put it).

The latter part of the chapter asks the question “Are Military Games Realist?” Galloway’s discussion on realism within gaming tackles the first-person shooter genre by comparing the U.S. Army’s first-person shooter America’s Army with the Hizbullah’s Special Force and Dar Al-Fikr’s Under Ash. Through his earlier definition, Galloway argues that the latter two FPS are more realistic due to their social content:

“games are an active medium that require constant physical input by the player... So it is because games are an active medium that realism in gaming requires a special congruence between the social reality depicted in the game and the social reality known and lived by the player.” (Galloway 83)

I tend to agree with most of what Galloway says in this chapter. Defining gamic realism as being solely based on core units of the game (narrative alone; pictorial alone) does not suffice because of the interactive element. Galloway’s logic here is quite sound.  The best examples for realism within game are contained through those experiences deemed “representational” in narrative and gameplay (therefore games like The Sims are not merited with a high level of realism according to Galloway’s analysis despite representing possible everyday life of the player).

However, I find it unnerving that Galloway does not discuss those games whose sole purpose is realism concerning sensation play and the associations made through sensation play. How would Galloway define the realism within Flight Simulator 2000 with the OEM joystick which looks, feels, jars, and can go rigid or stiff in flight like a real flight control stick? Where does sensation play lie in Galloway’s concept social realism within gaming? Although the player of Flight Simulator 2000 may not be a pilot, the recreation of the physical sensation of simulated mechanical control could be considered the highest achieved level of realism within all gaming experiences, simply based on the associations the player makes mentally due to the realistic sensory experience.

Also, Galloway disregards the idea of allegory as a variation on realism in video games. However, literary works such as George Orwell’s Animal Farm create social realism through metaphor and analogy, so why could a video game such as Final Fantasy not do the same?