Man, I should have done a thesis.

Michael: I think you may be right that self-reflexiveness doesn’t really belong in this theory. The idea of a “video-gaminess” continuum still appeals to me, though; maybe I’d revise it to have Wii Fit on one end and [insert super-mega-hardcore game here] on the other. (What game goes there, anyway? Ikaruga? Europa Universalis? Nethack?)

Also, I’m eight kinds of excited about EarthBound. I especially love how much attention it’s been getting from the major gaming sites. Hopefully someone at Nintendo will faint at the sales numbers, get revived, and then release that rumored Mother 1-3 compilation cart for the DS. :)

It simply can’t be emphasized enough: EARTHBOUND IS COMING TO THE VC!!

Woo hoo!

:-)

The self-reflexivity issue is an interesting one, Dan. The obstacle for me in seeing it as a distinct “leg” or “branch” (I’m swimming in my own bad metaphors) of gaming is that self-reflexivity seems to be about specific moments in games or books or movies. It’s like a voice one adopts, rather than a fundamental structure or mode that defines an entire work. The kings of cinematic self-reflexiveness were the New Wave directors of the 50s and 60s (although Buster Keaton beat them to it by thirty years). I think of these films as stylistically very free and boundary-breaking, but the self-reflexive aspects were only a part of this new film language. Looking at the camera and winking is part of a larger overall revision that includes other distinctive elements.

I think I see video games like No More Heroes in the same way, although I admittedly haven’t thought about self-reflexivity in games as much as I have with film.

On the other hand, to a certain extent, it doesn’t really matter what the ‘author’ intended. We can still interpret meaning within the game even if the producer comes out and says it isn’t there. This is partly because games are such a collaborative medium and no one person can really step back and say what the meaning definitively is; but also because if we are looking at this in a reflexive, post-modern sense, we can start talking about the authorship, or lack of an author in the game.

Majora’s Mask, and the Zelda series in general, is a tough nut to crack. On one hand there is definitely a sort of winking self-awareness (I’m thinking of the way the NPC dialogue often makes direct reference to controller buttons). At the same time, though, I feel like Zelda games are somewhat traditional in that they want to be approached on their own terms and not from a broader critical perspective. In other words, the time in Majora’s Mask feels to me like a game mechanic for its own sake, and not a reflexive commentary on gaming itself. Similarly, I think your second point — that the NPCs “have no purpose other than to be in the right, preprogrammed place at the right time” — can be made about just about every video game, and isn’t intended to have significance outside of Majora’s Mask.

Those are just my personal impressions, though, and I can certainly see where you’re coming from. I suppose it comes down to how much intentionality, and what kind, we want to ascribe to a given game’s creators.

Secondly, I actually consider Majora’s Mask to be one of the most postmodern, self-reflexive games around. Think about it - each day draws your attention to the game mechanics, and that the inhabitants of Termina have no purpose other than to be in the right, preprogrammed place at the right time. I’d say more but I have to rush.

Matthew: That’s a neat theory Godin has, and I think your examples illustrate that it might have some merit here. I think some of the more inane minigame collections that plague the Wii might fit your “casual” extreme.

It’s that gulf in the middle that interests me. If it really does exist, then creating “bridge games” is probably the wrong approach. Maybe the casual/hardcore dichotomy that some critics have lamented is useful after all.

It’s a bit of a stretch, but I’d be interested in tying in your two suggested spectra with an idea Seth Godin brought up recently. Under his paradigm, Halo 3 and GTA4 appeal to the “passion” hardcore gamers, while Wii Sports and Wii Fit appeal to the “pop” casual gamers, and games that fall in the middle (Katamari Damacy? Viva Pinata?) and at the extremes (No More Heroes and Earthbound, but I suppose this doesn’t really apply to the casual extreme) tend to find a more niche following.

Grasping at straws? Yes, but grasping FIRMLY.