unit operations - an approach to videogame criticism

AN APPROACH TO VIDEOGAME CRITICISM UNIT OPERATIONS IAN BOGOST IAN BOGOST In Unit Operations, Ian Bogost argues that similar principles underlie both literary theory and computation, proposing a literary-technical theory that can be used to analyze particular videogames. Moreover, this approach can be applied beyond videogames: Bogost suggests that any medium—from videogames to poetry, literature, cinema, or art—can be read as a configurative system of discrete, interlock- ing units of meaning, and he illustrates this method of analysis with examples from all these fields. The marriage of literary theory and information technology, he argues, will help humanists take technology more seriously and help technologists better under- stand software and videogames as cultural artifacts. This approach is especially useful for the comparative analysis of digital and nondigital artifacts and allows scholars from other fields who are interested in studying videogames to avoid the esoteric isolation of “game studies.” The richness of Bogost’s comparative approach can be seen in his discussions of works by such philosophers and theorists as Plato, Badiou, Zizek, and McLuhan, and in his analysis of numerous video- games including Pong, Half-Life, and Star Wars Galaxies. Bogost draws on object technology and complex adaptive systems theory for his method of unit analysis, underscoring the configurative aspects of a wide variety of human processes. His extended analysis of freedom in large virtual spaces examines Grand Theft Auto 3, The Legend of Zelda, Flaubert’s Madame Bovary, and Joyce’s Ulysses. In Unit Operations, Bogost not only offers a new methodology for videogame criticism but argues for the possibility of real collabo- ration between the humanities and information technology. ^ ^ UNIT OPERATIONS AN APPROACH TO VIDEOGAME CRITICISM “Bogost challenges humanists and technologists to pay attention to one another, something they desperately need to do as computation accelerates us into the red zones of widespread virtual reality. This book gives us what we need to meet that challenge: a general theory for understanding creativity under computation, one that will apply increasingly to all creativity in the future. Not only that, but we get an outstanding theory of videogame criticism in the mix as well. Highly recommended.” Edward Castronova Department of Telecommunications Indiana University author of Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games “Unit Operations is a major milestone on the path to establishing a framework for analyzing videogames as important cultural artifacts of our time. Proposing a comparative approach to videogame criticism that is equally relevant for humanists and technologists, Ian Bogost weaves philosophy, psychoanalysis, literature, film, media theory, informatics, software, and videogames into a narrative that reveals how these seeming- ly disparate fields relate to and inform each other. Unit operations—discrete, programmatic units of meaning— are used as the conceptual tool for unpacking complex relationships between different worlds: criticism and computation, genetics and complex adaptive systems, and narrative spaces from Casablanca and Half-Life to Ulysses and Grand Theft Auto.” Christiane Paul Adjunct Curator of New Media Arts Whitney Museum of American Art BOGOST UNIT OPERATIONS new media/game studies Ian Bogost is Assistant Professor of Literature, Communication, and Culture at Georgia Institute of Technology. THE MIT PRESS MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS 02142 HTTP://MITPRESS.MIT .EDU 0-262-02599-X ,!7IA2G2-acfjjh!:t;K;k;K;k 49243Bogost 2/8/06 2:43 AM Page 1 Unit Operations [...]... seriously tend to do so for one another rather than for outsiders My intention is to produce an approach to criticism for procedural artifacts like videogames that can be put to use by humanists and technologists alike To this end, I have tried to offer adequate explanation in addition to analysis when introducing complex topics in either field, without enervating its experts I am hopeful and sincere about... frameworks, and software frameworks assemble into multiple software applications The word object is a suitable generic analogue, one used by philosopher Graham Harman in his innovative and related concept of an object-oriented philosophy.4 Harman interprets Heidegger’s analysis of Zuhandenheit, or readiness -to- hand, as a quality available to entities other than Dasein Shedding the Heideggerian jargon, Harman... these units, such as works of literature, human conditions, anatomies, and economies can properly be called systems, but such systems are fundamentally different from the kind units Unit Operations 5 have unseated in the many disciplines noted above Moreover, such systems can be understood in turn as units themselves In a famous example, autopoetic system theorists Francisco Valera and Humberto Maturana... Units,” I introduce the concept of unit operations, a general conceptual frame for discrete, compressed elements of fungible meaning I advance a practice of criticism underwritten by unit operations, which I call unit analysis Beginning with classical antiquity and working toward the microcomputer, I discuss the conceptual antecedents for unit operations (Plato, Aristotle, Leibniz, Spinoza, Badiou) I... object- and relational-effects OT fabricates for software are built into natural systems like human society and the brain These approaches to a wide variety of social and biological systems underscore the configurative aspects of a whole range of human processes I can think of few other fields with more varied demands on the qualifications of their practitioners than the humanities and informatics And when... Brewing tea is an operation Steering a car to avoid a pedestrian is an operation Falling in love is an operation Operations can be Unit Operations 7 mechanical, such as adjusting the position of an airplane flap; they can be tactical, such as sending a regiment of troops into battle; or they can be discursive, such as interviewing for a job A material and conceptual logic always rules operations In their... operation; it seeks to construct an ontological domain that includes and excludes certain works by virtue of their overall function By contrast, a unit operation may be observed in any artifact, or any portion of any artifact, rather arbitrarily I insist on this broader understanding of unit operations to allow its logic to resonate across expressive forms, from literature to film to software to videogames While... social and human sciences, structuralism expresses the most affinity toward systematicity Mark C Taylor characterizes the structuralists’ obsession with systems as an attempt to discover reason in history by uncovering forms and patterns that are permanent and universal rather than transient and arbitrary.”9 Stability, linearity, universalism, and permanence characterize system operations System operations. .. paperwork with customs, and each day the same immigration agent (Torres, a key character in another of the film’s units) red-stamps it Viktor’s absurdist acquiescence to the bureaucratic rules of immigration even disrupts the immigration office itself Office chief Frank Dixon expects Navorsky to try to escape the terminal since only sliding doors stand between Viktor and the United States But Viktor is also... provided to distract passengers as they wait for the next milestone in the flight We wait for the food or drink cart (or we wait for it to move out of the way, so we can once again see the in-flight movie) We wait for the seatbelt light to stop illuminating so that we can get up and wait for the lavatory We wait to disembark so that we can wait to be cleared at customs The in-flight movie is an especially . tend to do so for one another rather than for outsiders. My intention is to produce an approach to criticism for pro- cedural artifacts like videogames that can be put to use by humanists and. worlds: criticism and computation, genetics and complex adaptive systems, and narrative spaces from Casablanca and Half-Life to Ulysses and Grand Theft Auto.” Christiane Paul Adjunct Curator of. and was printed and bound in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bogost, Ian. Unit operations : an approach to videogame criticism / Ian Bogost. p.