Bad Object 2.0: Games and Gamers

Social Normativity

Socially normative depictions of games and gamers differ from the conventions of "negative stereotyping" seen in this project's discussions of the purported antisocial effects of video games, such as addiction, violence and sexual repression. What I have termed here "socially normative" are those depictions of games and gamers that serve to suppress the transformative potentials of interactive entertainment, framing them instead within a reassuring context of containment and continuity with the existing social order. Although they may indeed sometimes be understood as "negative," these depictions are most important to understand as being trivial, with a scope of consequence that is limited to a single relationship or insular social milieu. Games in the eyes of Hollywood, at the exact moment when real world games are most actively exploring "serious" topics and potentially beneficial social dynamics, are presented as impotent and irrelevant as agents of societal change and civic engagement.

Among the most relentlessly trivializing visions of games ever produced in Hollywood is the romantic comedy The Break-Up (2006). Starring Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston, The Break-Up is the story of a couple in the process of ending their relationship in part because Vaughn plays video games obsessively on the couch, while neglecting his girlfriend (Aniston). Ultimately, the two decide to continue cohabitating in their jointly owned condominium and proceed to torment each other - Vaughn by coaxing Aniston's male suitors to play video games with him rather than go out on dates with her, and Aniston by exploiting the fact that she is no longer sexually available to her former partner.

In Couples Retreat (2009), Vince Vaughn reprises his role as the quintessential video game obsessed dude, whose game-based homosocial bonding takes precedence over heterosexual romance (see also Mallrats, The Big Bang Theory). This scene also continues a long tradition of cinematic depictions of showcase game play sequences that directly incorporate game aesthetics but provide little narrative exposition. When Vaughn turns out to be an expert Guitar Hero player during a macho showdown, the two characters lapse into a different genre of videogame vernacular, receiving directions as if part of an RPG quest. Although they catalyze a competition and reconciliation, games are nonetheless positioned as a trivial distraction, in opposition to the concurrent seduction of the player's wife by a hypermasculine rival in the real world.

This extended sequence from The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005) crystallizes many of the social tensions that surround depictions of video games on film, when stereotypical gamer dude homophobia is intercut with attempted heterosexual romance. This scene brings together multiple tropes in the representation of video games on film and television: hyperviolence, homophobia, social awkwardness, introversion, antisocial behavior, linkages between sex and violence, etc. The implicit critique of video games and the derogatory use of "gay" in gamer vernacular speech is muddled by the film's ambiguous attitude toward games and other artifacts that question the main character's masculinity.

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