Queering Game Development
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Transcript of Queering Game Development
Queering Game Development
Robert Yang (@radiatoryang)Parsons the New School for Design MFADT
NYU Game Center
Queerness and Games ConferenceUC Berkeley
27 October 2013
First person modding as political practice- mods aren't “real games”?- modder inferiority complex- modding as path to “break in” AAA- distribution? How to play a mod?
- who REALLY owns your work?- who is “allowed” to mod?
For more info, c.f. “People's History of the FPS”
Paratext, packaging, production value
JOUI-F*CKING-SSANCEBIG TOE IS SO BIG
“NVIDIA: IT'S IN THE GAME”
CANDY
"... First, we want to establish the idea that a computer language is not just a way of getting a computer to perform operations but rather that it is a novel formal medium for expressing ideas about methodology. Thus, programs must be written for people to read, and only incidentally for machines to execute."
“... programs must be written for people to read, and
only incidentally formachines to execute."
- one of the most influentialtexts on programming
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10by Nick Montfort, Patsy Baudoin, John Bell, Ian BogostJeremy Douglass, Mark C. Marino, Michael MateasCasey Reas, Mark Sample, and Noah Vawter (2012)
Criminal Code: Procedural Logic and Rhetorical Excess in Videogamesby Mark Sample (2013)
“Screen essentialism”
" the graphical user interface is …often uncritically accepted as the ground zero of the user’s experience”
- Matthew Kirschenbaum (2008)in “Mechanisms: New Media and the Forensic Imagination”
default_player_setup.scr:
sub Skills_Purna(){[...]Skill(“TeamSpirit2Purna”);Skill(“FeministWhorePurna”);Skill(“MeleeDurabilityPurna”);[...]
}
"The line in question was something a programmer considered a private joke. The skill naturally has a completely different in-game name and the script reference was also changed. What is left is a part of an obscure debug function."
- developer's response
default_player_setup.scr:sub Skills_Purna(){
Skill("TeamSpirit1Purna");Skill("SharpApprenticePurna");Skill("BoostAura1Purna");Skill("GLMeleeDmgPurna");Skill("ElemetalDurationPurna");Skill("ComboCriticalProbPurna");Skill("ElemetalDurationPurna");Skill("MoreCraftedAmmoPurna");Skill("RVTiefPurna");Skill("TSDmgIncrasedPurna");Skill("CraftedWeaponKillFuryPointsPurna");Skill("ChanceToFireUpEnemyPurna");Skill("TeamSpirit2Purna");Skill("FeministWhorePurna");[…]
}
“... programs must be written for people to read, and
only incidentally formachines to execute."
- one of the most influentialtexts on programming
"I found a way to alter the items you get when choosing a chapter."
- a Dead Island modder, on thefunctionality of default_player_setup.scr2+ weeks after release / day one patch
"The line in question was something a programmer considered a private joke. The skill naturally has a completely different in-game name and the script reference was also changed. What is left is a part of an obscure debug function."
- developer's response
“PRIVATE” TO WHO? JUST TOEVERY SINGLEDEVELOPER?
“OBSCURE DEBUG” AS IN “RUN THIS EVERY TIME APLAYER STARTS A NEW GAME”
“... programs must be written for people to read, and
only incidentally formachines to execute."
- one of the most influentialtexts on programming
A BRIEF PRIMER TO READING SOME CODE:
// don't drink too much
beersDrunk = 4 ;
A “comment” is a note for humans; a summary of what code below does, or an explanation of something not obvious from the code already
Computers are good at remembering things in the form of “variables”...Imagine your computer memory is like an attic, filled with boxes.
The name of the variable; the label on a storage box.
A value for the variable;the thing inside a storage box.
There are also “types”; is it a small, long, big box?What kind of thing is in the box?
SOME CODE:
// multiple choice, discreteenum Gender { Masculine,
Feminine,Genderqueer,Lasagna,All }
myGender = Gender.Feminine;
“... programs must be written for people to read, and
only incidentally formachines to execute."
- one of the most influentialtexts on programming
YOUR ALLIES!!!!
- digital humanities!!!!- creative coding movements!!!- hacker spaces, direct action!!!- everyone in this room!!!!!- Different Games!!!- Transcode!!!!- Code Liberation!!!!!WE CAN DO IT WE CAN DO IT
SOME QUESTIONS YOU CAN ASK YOURSELF OR YOUR TECHNICALLY-MINDED ALLIES:
- What sum of code and assets facilitate this simulation / interaction?- How was this ________ built?- Why did they do it this way? What are other possible implementations?- What happens if I change ________ ?- Cheap / expensive? Static / dynamic?
Elegant / “hack”? Stable / instable?