Always Already Monsters: BioShock's (2007) 'Splicers' as Computational Others

Kód výsledku v IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216208%3A11230%2F19%3A10413101" target="_blank" >RIV/00216208:11230/19:10413101 - isvavai.cz</a>

Výsledek na webu

<a href="https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=o~Gm8cZ78M" target="_blank" >https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=o~Gm8cZ78M</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.7557/13.5015" target="_blank" >10.7557/13.5015</a>

Jazyk výsledku

angličtina

Název v původním jazyce

Always Already Monsters: BioShock's (2007) 'Splicers' as Computational Others

Popis výsledku v původním jazyce

The article explores the manufacturing of monsters in video games, using the case of the influential 2007 first-person shooter BioShock, and &apos;splicers&apos;-its most numerous, zombie-like enemies. I combine two methodological perspectives on the &apos;manufacturing&apos; of splicers by analyzing [a] the title&apos;s developer commentary and other official paratexts to trace the design of splicers, and [b] the game&apos;s embedded narrative to reconstruct the diegetic backstory of splicers. I argue that video game enemies, including splicers, are &apos;computational others&apos;, who may appear human on the level of representation, but whose behavior is machinic, and driven by computational algorithms. To justify the paradoxical relationship between their human-like representation and machinic behavior, BioShock includes an elaborate narrative that explains how the citizens of the underwater city of Rapture were dehumanized and transformed into hostile splicers. The narrative of dehumanization, explored following Haslam&apos;s dehumanization theory (2006), includes [a] transforming splicers into atomized creatures by depriving them of political power and social bonds, [b] creating fungible and interchangeable enemies through splicers&apos; masks and bodily disintegration, [c] justifying splicers&apos; blindness to context and their simplistic behavior by portraying them as mentally unstable addicts. The article concludes that all video game enemies are inherently monstrous, and that critique of video game representation should focus on how games fail to make monsters human, rather than how games render humans monstrous or dehumanized.

Název v anglickém jazyce

Always Already Monsters: BioShock's (2007) 'Splicers' as Computational Others

Popis výsledku anglicky

The article explores the manufacturing of monsters in video games, using the case of the influential 2007 first-person shooter BioShock, and &apos;splicers&apos;-its most numerous, zombie-like enemies. I combine two methodological perspectives on the &apos;manufacturing&apos; of splicers by analyzing [a] the title&apos;s developer commentary and other official paratexts to trace the design of splicers, and [b] the game&apos;s embedded narrative to reconstruct the diegetic backstory of splicers. I argue that video game enemies, including splicers, are &apos;computational others&apos;, who may appear human on the level of representation, but whose behavior is machinic, and driven by computational algorithms. To justify the paradoxical relationship between their human-like representation and machinic behavior, BioShock includes an elaborate narrative that explains how the citizens of the underwater city of Rapture were dehumanized and transformed into hostile splicers. The narrative of dehumanization, explored following Haslam&apos;s dehumanization theory (2006), includes [a] transforming splicers into atomized creatures by depriving them of political power and social bonds, [b] creating fungible and interchangeable enemies through splicers&apos; masks and bodily disintegration, [c] justifying splicers&apos; blindness to context and their simplistic behavior by portraying them as mentally unstable addicts. The article concludes that all video game enemies are inherently monstrous, and that critique of video game representation should focus on how games fail to make monsters human, rather than how games render humans monstrous or dehumanized.

Druh

J_ost - Ostatní články v recenzovaných periodicích

CEP obor

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OECD FORD obor

50802 - Media and socio-cultural communication

Projekt

—

Návaznosti

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Rok uplatnění

2019

Kód důvěrnosti údajů

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Název periodika

Nordlit

ISSN

1503-2086

e-ISSN

—

Svazek periodika

Neuveden

Číslo periodika v rámci svazku

42

Stát vydavatele periodika

NO - Norské království

Počet stran výsledku

22

Strana od-do

257-278

Kód UT WoS článku

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EID výsledku v databázi Scopus

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