[-empyre-] Punk and Games, messages by Julian and Gabriel

[Julian Raul Kücklich]

Hi Mathias,

I think you might be right about the antagonistic character of (early) 
videogame culture --- it's just that it was never made explicit to my 
knowledge. In terms of the paradigm shift from "passive" screen-based 
media such as television and film to "interactive" media, it should be 
acknowledged that videogames entered into a parasitic relationship with 
these media early on. Gaming consoles and early home computers plugged 
directly into the home television set, and many games aimed for 
"cinematic realism", borrowing techniques and conventions from film.

Certainly, jargon and a shared (geek) aesthetic helped in carving out a 
subcultural niche, which could be seen as positioning itself against 
more mainstream lifestyles. However, I am not sure to what extent this 
exclusion was voluntary. But then again, that holds true for a lot of 
other subcultures as well. Maybe it's easier to see gaming culture as a 
subset of geek culture, which embraced technology, and a DIY aesthetic. 
But of course much of that was swept away when computer technology 
became mainstream.

So that then raises the question whether we can only ever see gaming 
subcultures in the rearview mirror, and whether it is the nostalgic 
subcultures in particular that seem relevant. Retrogaming, speedrunning 
(with it's insistence of replaying games like Super Mario Bros. and 
Quake over and over again), the demo scene, and similar scenes seem to 
indicate that that is the case. The e-sports scene, which enshrines 
classics like CounterStrike and StarCraft, would be another case in 
point. These scenes also seem to be much more similar to punk with its 
insistence on a low-tech and low-fi aesthetic.

Julian.

dr julian raul kuecklich

http://playability.de


Am 02.12.2010 12:03, schrieb Mathias Fuchs:
> Videogames and Punk Music
>
> There seem to be different opinions how "punk" early videogames were. 
> Julian suggests that "Gaming culture was never positioned against 
> anything else..." which I doubt. I can detect "against" on the level 
> of user-generations, jargon, embeddedness in a mediatic set-up, 
> aesthetics, and lifestyle.
> Resemblances to Punk could be found in a preference of media that are 
> definitely not high-culture (Commodores and Ataris versus tv 
> broadcast), jargon (fragged, high-score, bots), geekyness as a 
> lifestyle element. When gamers refused to watch TV is was provocative 
> agains a cherished media environment that the parent generation 
> identified with. Now it worries the BBC, that gamers don't switch on 
> Coronation Street.
>
> There are even unpleasant similarities of gamers' opposition to the 
> establishment and punk opposition against the establishment. The Sex 
> Pistols' use of the swastika was a  naive teen-age revolt against 
> moderate high-culture that reappeared in a lot of Nazi emblematic in 
> early videogames up to Wolfenstein.
> "Strong language" is another thing that made videogame attractive and 
> opposed to the censored correct speech of the traditional media.
> But also the generation divide and gender divide between 14 to 18 year 
> old boys and non-gamers could be interpreted as an enforced rebellious 
> act via cultural techniques (of jargon, lifestyle, fashion) and 
> thereby be acoounted for as "against".
>
> Mathias
>
>
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