ǂThe ǂsecret of the point and click adventures

psychoanalytic point of pointing in a bygone genre

Abstract

This article analyzes the general characteristic of once exceptionally popular genre of adventure video games, which reached its peak with the famous pirate series Monkey Island. Although there have been various attempts to revive it, it is inevitably situated among the relics of history. The reason could be traced to a variety of developmental, economic and conceptual features, but in the final instance it was its own structure that led to its downfall or death. Since its formation, the adventure genre was namely imbued with an unabolishable contradiction, which certainly situates it alongside psychoanalytic practice. It was simultaneously striving for something too much and too little. The adventure games are on the one hand based on the assumption that all the in-game possibilities are pre-arranged, so that the player is only left to acknowledge and approve the already adopted path. But on the other, the genre thrived on experimenting with the game mechanism, where the contingent acts of pointing retroactively undermined the necessity of such preconditioned actions. The article is accordingly based on the premise that the ensuing inference doesn't solely indicate a specific feature of this genre, but also highlights the peculiarity of human existence as such.

Keywords

Videoigre;Kulturne študije;Psihoanaliza;

Data

Language:	English
Year of publishing:	2014
Typology:	1.01 - Original Scientific Article
Organization:	UL FDV - Faculty of Social Sciences
Publisher:	Fakulteta za sociologijo, politične vede in novinarstvo v Ljubljani
UDC:	794-028.23:159.964.2
COBISS:	32560477
ISSN:	0040-3598
Parent publication:	Teorija in praksa
Views:	820
Downloads:	198
Average score:	0 (0 votes)
Metadata:

Other data

Secondary language:	Slovenian
Secondary abstract:	Članek analizira splošno značilnost nekoč izredno popularnega žanra pustolovskih videoiger, ki je doživel svoj vrhunec s serijo Monkey Island. Kljub številnim poskusom oživljanja tega žanra se je njegov čas nedvoumno iztekel. Razloge za to lahko iščemo v različnih razvojnih, ekonomskih in pojmovnih posebnostih, vendar je bila konec koncev njegova lastna struktura tista, ki ga je pokopala. Ta žanr je bil vse od svojega nastanka prežet z neodpravljivim protislovjem, zaradi česar ga lahko brez zadržkov uvrstimo ob bok psihoanalitični teoriji; stremel je hkrati po nečem preveč in premalo. Po eni strani so avanture namreč utemeljene na predpostavki, da so vse možnosti znotraj igre že vnaprej predvidene, tako da je igralec potreben samo zato, da prehodi že zarisano pot. Po drugi strani pa se je žanr razvil ravno skozi eksperimentiranje z igralnim mehanizmom, kjer kontingentna dejanja kazanja retroaktivno spodkopljejo nujnost omenjenih vnaprej pripravljenih delovanj.
Secondary keywords:	Video games;Cultural studies;Psychoanalysis;
URN:	URN:NBN:SI
Type (COBISS):	Not categorized
Pages:	str. 22-42, 186
Volume:	ǂLetn. ǂ51
Issue:	ǂšt. ǂ1
Chronology:	jan.-feb. 2014
ID:	9105843