Written Analysis - Fifa 13

Fifa 13 is a video game which can be played on several different consoles such as Playstation or Xbox. I think that it is Post Modern for the following reasons. Firstly the whole concept of the game is hyper real as it reflects the reality of a real football match into a simulated/unreal world, where the consumer or audience acts as a real football player, controlling their every move. It also holds a hyper real feel where in each game the minutes are like seconds and the game doesn't last as long as a real football match,  as if time is moving faster.
To a certain extent, an intertextual reference maybe classed as a television programme as all of the top league matches are broadcasted on the well-known channels such as BBC and ITV, which ties in to the idea of voyeurism, whilst watching a match on TV you are looking through a screen, as well as whilst playing the game, you are playing through a screen.
Nostalgia is a huge part of the Fifa game, as every year an updated version comes out, however the concept of the game is constantly recycled from the year before however made better. If one were to have played it 10 years ago, they would recognise similar features in the newer versions. Also, it could be argued that hybridisation has occurred in this video game, as the real sport - football has been merged with an animated world, forming a realistic game consisting of real life football players, where any consumer may enter this world which is entirely simulated however holds that factor of realism.
I also think that it is post modern due to the fact that any real life footballer may play this game, but literally, as they are controlling themselves but as a character, as if they are actually inside the simulated game. This is unnatural as it is as if they are moving through worlds from their physical self into themselves in a animated world. This breaks down the barrier between the consumer and the real life football players, as they are one when they play the game.

Terminology Match Up

1. Post Modern
E. A historical period in Western culture after the Second World in which society became dominated by information technology.

2. Post Modernity
F. The knowledge and information that informs people's cultural consumption in a post modern society.

3. Parody
A. To copy something in a humorous and tongue in cheek way.

4. Pastiche
D. A copy without an original.

5. Hyper-reality
K. The collapse of the distinction between the real and the simulated.

6. Consumer Culture
B. A culture and society in which individual and and collective identity is constructed in material acts of economic exchange, e.g. shopping.

7. Simulacrum
H. To copy something without humour, irony, or anything else that communicates difference.

8. Cultural Capital
I. The dominant way of thinking about society and culture enforced by the ruling class.

9. Signifier and the signified
G. The basic units of semiotic analysis.

10. Multi-accentuality
L. The way in which meaning changes according to context and over time.

11. Ideology
J. A system of belief or ideas.

12. Hegemony
C. The semiotic landscape of a society dominated by consumer culture and information technology.

Terminology and Definitions

Reading Comprehension

1. What does post modernism suggest about the value of high art (eg opera) and popular culture (eg TV)?
That anything can be art, and anything can deserve to reach an audience, and culture 'eats itself' as there is no longer anything new to produce or distribute.

2. What does post modernism suggest about the ideas of truth or reality - how is this linked with the media?
The distinction between media and reality has collapsed, and we now live in a reality defined by images and representations. Images refer to each other and represent each other as reality rather than some 'pure' reality that exists before the image represents it - the state of hyper reality. All the ideas of the truth are just competing claims and what we believe to be the truth at any point is merely the 'winning' discourse.

3. Who were the 2 big thinkers and what concept do their theories share?
Jean-Francois Lyotard and Jean Baudrillard offered different versions of either post modernism or post-modernity. They share a belief that the ideas of truth need to be deconstructed so that we can challenge dominant ideas that people claim as truth which Lyotard describes as Grand Narratives.

4. Give an example of 3 Grand Narratives or Meta Narratives.


5. What is significant about Disneyland and Simulacrum?
There is an idea that there is no longer a distinction between reality and representing image or simulacrum. Baudrillard claimed that Disneyland is the best example for understanding how our reality works in the postmodern world - a place which is at the same time a real physical space but also clearly fictional, representational world.

6. How is our understanding of the events of 9/11 hyper real?
Baudrillard sees the events of 9/11 in terms of image - this is what we recall when mentioned, the endless TV repeats of the live pictures. The 9/11 event instantly passed into electronic transmission, and this was a global media event, accelerating us into a state of hyper reality. We cannot distinguish the representation of the events on the TV from the actual events.

7. What is significant about the Matrix as an example of Baudrillard's ideas of simulation and hyper reality?
The subject matter is post modern but the style of the film making is self referential which means that is has resemblance to video games, other films ad graphic novels, rather than to reality is deliberate as is the use of bullet time as a hyper real filmic approach.

Post Modernism – Case study analysis – Doctor Who Interactive Game.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/games/graske/geoip/host.shtml

This is an online interactive game based on a Doctor Who adventure where you, the gamer, become the doctor’s latest companion. I believe this is post-modern because it incorporates both a game set up as well as an acting narrative and involves the player in the narrative itself. The game opens just like an episode of the show with the rolling credits and soundtrack, the camera is then used to represent the gamer inside the tardis, to which David Tennant as the doctor says ‘Ah, I need your help. Do you fancy a trip in the tardis?’. This delves into hyper reality, as the viewer of the tv show becomes a part of the story too, shown when Tennant says to the camera ‘I just dropped Rose off for a bit’. This immerses the gamer into the narrative. After teaching the gamer what to do, Tennant says ‘Well get out there. This is your show!’, making the gamer become a real character within the narrative. The game is online and on the Doctor Who tv show’s official BBC website and helps to further promote not only the show but also the brand and the actors and writers themselves. Within the game, footage from an actual episode is used, therefore again blurring the line of reality – of what you watch at home and what you become a part of as a gamer. It breaks down the structure of what it is to be a viewer and consumer of a programme and through a different type of media – a game – allows the audience to become a part of the narrative of the drama show. Although the show and game is based in the genre of science fiction, it does parallel with our own reality and culture, particularly because all of the Doctor’s companions have been humans and also because the show promotes the idea of being morally right and reflects western and predominantly British culture. This is also shown in the game, as the gamer takes on a role they have seen be performed before and play with their logic and also fantasy intact. 

Post Modernism Comprehension

Post Modernism suggests the idea that the value of high culture and low(popular) culture is the same and that people base what they like on personal taste and preference rather than what it is labelled as.

Post Modern suggests ideas about truth and reality such as the idea that with the development of technology and media, reality is being blurred, causing hyper-reality. What is true and what is false are being forced together causing people to not fully understand what the difference is anymore. One example of this is simulation and how our relationships with others can become hyper real due to the simulations of ourselves via social networking site Facebook.

The two big thinkers of Post Modernism are Lyotard and Baudrillard. Both theorists share the concept of the truth needing to be ‘deconstructed’ so one can challenge the dominant themes or ‘grand narratives’ that people claim to be the truth.

Examples of ‘grand narratives’ include:

Disneyland is significant in the idea of hyper-reality and simulacrum as it is a real place, yet is formed entirely of film and book, stories and fairy tales, thus creating something totally fake but in real place which you can experience.   

Our understanding of 9/11 can be considered to be hyper real because of the way it was broadcasted globally. Footage taken on phones and cameras from the scene became used for news channels and in worldwide media, showing from different angles the tragedy. Because the scene has been recreated through media and unless you were there, seems like something from a disaster movie, it blurs the line between what is real and what is forced onto screen. It changes our idea of what is real, when a disaster happens and can be broadcasted like it’s a film.

The Matrix is significant to support the theories of Baudrillard as it delves into the idea of what is real and what isn’t as the film portrays the idea of what it is to be human and whether we are being human even when we are being controlled. The actual themes of the film are postmodern as well as the way it is produced.

There are postmodern elements in the Mighty Boosh such as the fact that it is a parody of intertextual references which challenges conventions as it cannot be put into one specific genre box. It uses the bricolage method in its creation and is postmodern in its ability to experiment with the show as a being, with the way it is structured and broadcasted.

There are postmodern elements in tv show Extras as not only does it show the behind the scenes of another show, breaking the convention of a show being a fictional representation of life which blurs reality, it also uses real actors as themselves in a fictional narrative. The show in its own narrative reflects and deconstructs the real narrative of the show, paralleling what the show portrays as real to what it portrays as being the show’s narrative.

Grand Theft Auto is postmodern as it allows a real person to become a simulation of another whilst at the same time letting the game player learn the narrative of the game as well as actual skills to play. It blurs the focus of what is real and what is hyper real as elements of real life are used and portrayed in fake situations in real places.

The Cadbury’s Gorilla advert can be seen as postmodern as it arguably uses the concept of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to reflect the primal nature of needing food, illuminating the idea that people need food, and want chocolate despite the pressure of western media culture which attempts to encourage people to eat healthy. Strategically, it uses the USP of the gorilla and the Phil Collins song to sell and market virally using social networking platforms such as Youtube and Twitter.

In Postmodernism terms for gaming, FLOW basically means what the games challenges the player into doing and the constant feedback it gives the player urging them to continue playing. IMMERSION basically means the way a gamer is absorbed into the game by their own imagination combining with the game itself.