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Video Game Fans as Textual Poachers
By Bobby Bokista - 12.22.04
Textual Poachers
Henry Jenkins' study of television fans in Textual Poachers draws in part from the work of Michel de Certeau. Gamers, much like television fans, "appropriate popular texts and reread them in a fashion that serves different interests."4 These fans "construct their cultural and social identity through borrowing and inflecting mass culture images" and undertake roles and modes of reading that the dominant media neglect.5 This type of reading, characterized by de Certeau as "poaching," places the audience as active agents taking desired meanings from the text. As fans, the Starmen.net community members are unable to directly manipulate the text of EarthBound. In order to participate in anything other than playing the game, fans must turn to other forms of cultural output. The Internet acts as a publishing and distribution resource for these fan products, and the Starmen.net community brings these fans and their products into dialogue.
The basic factor in connecting a player to a game is gameplay-the way the mechanics of the game function in relation to the plot, goals, and the intentions of the designers. Games relying on narrative for progression need to be able to do this well in order for those stories to be compelling. A bad game with a good story will generally prevent the close bond between fan and text. The fans of EarthBound love it because the gameplay is compelling. Once this connection is made the player can poach the narrative for content they find valuable. The Starmen.net discussion of the game itself reveals the importance of this relationship:
"Instead of pouring all the resources of the cartridge and [the Super Nintendo] into graphics, the designers focused on making a FUN game... Even today the simple graphics serve as a stumbling block, turning away potential gamers. Those who actually play the game understand that graphics mean nothing with gameplay and storyline as amazing and funny as EarthBound's. In lieu of mass-recognition and insane sales figures, EarthBound gained its own niche of gaming fans."
There are many traits unique to gamers as fans. In terms of interaction, the player controls the destiny of their character or the progress of their task. Even if the story is mapped directly into the programming, the player feels that events unfold as a direct result of their actions on screen. There is a sense of responsibility undertaken by the player; it is up to them to complete the task. Even a game as basic as Tetris operates under this notion. If I, as the player, do not intervene and change the orientation and location of these falling blocks then this whole screen will fill and the game will end. In any of the Final Fantasy series of games, it is up to the player to restore order and peace to an otherwise chaotic world. If they do not meet these goals the villain wins. Many games function on the basic premise that the player undertakes the goals of one side of oppositional forces whose intentions are desirable. In doing so, they closely identify with that side and develop a relationship. The position of 'fan' signifies that the player has indicated that they value some aspect of the game. Anybody who has chosen to participate in some aspect of the Starmen.net community must have some connection to the text and their desire to share that connection with others.
Genre plays an important role in determining how the text is read in any situation. Jenkins references Peter Rabinowitz's 1985 discussion of genres, whereby "different genres evoke different questions readers want to ask and provide alternative rules for assigning significance and structure to textual content."6 An action-adventure game is going to evoke different responses than a puzzle game. These games use different design patters, methods of gameplay, and narratives to different ends. When a game is categorized in a specific genre certain expectations related to other games in that genre color the player's experience. Specific to the medium of video games, the genre shapes the players expectations for the gameplay. According to Rabinowitz, different interpretative strategies of the narrative arise from these expectations. The genre will "give priority to particular aspects of narratives… determine what meanings or implications can be ascribed to particular textual features… shape their expectations about likely plot developments… [and] shape the extrapolations readers make from textual details, the speculations they make about information not explicitly present within the story."7 EarthBound is a great game and has developed a cult following because it not only fits the expectations of its genre but goes beyond it to create a rich environment and unique narrative.
4 Jenkins. Textual Poachers 23.
5 Ibid., 23
6 Ibid. 133
7 Ibid., 133
Home •
Introduction •
Studying as a Fan •
Textual Poaching •
EarthBound •
Forming a Community •
What Poachers Make •
The Perfect Poach / Conclusion
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