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1. 1 2014-09-05T14:17:07-07:00 Steve Anderson 3e015d75989f7e2d586f4e456beb811c3220a805 Media Chronology Steve Anderson 23 A chronological gallery of all media included in this project structured_gallery 2014-09-09T07:35:30-07:00 Steve Anderson 3e015d75989f7e2d586f4e456beb811c3220a805

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• 1 2014-09-03T09:46:59-07:00 Games of the 2000s 18 plain 2014-09-04T14:24:28-07:00 Social normativity What I have termed here "socially normative" depictions of games and gamers differ from the conventions of "negative stereotyping" seen in the preceding examples of addiction, violence and sexual repression in cinematic games. Social normativity refers to 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 existing gender relations and 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 this context, are rendered impotent and irrelevant as potential agents of social change or civic engagement. Released in 1996, Doug Liman's Swingers prefigures a genre of cinematic treatments of games that came to fruition in the 2000s when console games were fully integrated into the domestic lives of the twenty-something generation. Vacuousness, profanity and homophobia are characteristic of these twenty-something gamer dudes, for whom the trivial banality of game worlds is coextensive with the real world. Swingers also represents the introduction of the paradigmatic gamer-dude character coined by Vince Vaughn, which would reappear with only minor variations in subsequent romantic comedies The Breakup (2006) and Couples Retreat (2009). The Breakup (2006) Vince Vaughn chooses video games over his girlfriend in The Breakup. In a battle between the sexes among a couple in the process of breaking up, videogames exacerbate the divide between men and women. A generation earlier, this scene would have played out over the image of a loutish male watching TV rather than paying attention to his partner. Couples Retreat (2009) Vince Vaughn continues to typify the quintessential video game obsessed dude, whose homosocial bonding takes precedence over his heterosexual romantic relationship. 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. 40 Year Old Virgin (2005) This extended sequence 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. Basically, this film's politics are a mess and most of the reasons for it are evident in these scenes.
• 1 2014-08-25T11:59:38-07:00 Social Normativity 14 plain 2014-09-16T15:45:52-07:00 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.