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As more of us welcome personal
computers and games consoles into our homes, what was once
the exclusive realm of hackers, programmers and enthusiasts
is now a burgeoning global industry with Nintendo and Sony
ploughing budgets the size of Hollywood movies into their
flight simulations, racing games and shoot-em-ups. Naturally,
the internet has become one of the main forums for computer
gaming gossip and merchandising, as well as a massive resource
for the download of free additions to games, bug fixes and
countless ways to cheat your way through the toughest parts
of any given scenario.
In a bid to prolong the life of their products, some manufacturers
even distribute game-patch software allowing players to reshape
the look and sound of an original release. This has led to
countless reproductions of work places, schools and home towns
as levels in games such as Doom and Quake, where peers, friends
and families can be blasted and blast each other into red
puddles of pixels.
At the same time, the game-patch is gaining popularity as
a way for artists to alter what happens at the end of the
joystick, becoming the latest in a long line of available
strategies for Appropriation and Subversion in Art. This is
not at the expense of a slowly growing number of artists'
games developed from scratch, but a distinct way of infiltrating
existing game architectures -environments that have already
been zealously marketed into the shallows of our consciousness.
From illusory 'hacks' of the picture-plane in paintings such
as Velazquez's, Las Meninas to Sadie Benning's irreverent
use of Fisher Price's toy video camera as a cinematic tool,
artists have always been questioning conventional uses of
technology long after their passing into the wake of the corporate
avant-garde. Whether it is Piero Manzoni canning his own faeces
or The Duvet Brothers satirically re-editing broadcast television
onto video, new technology will always be politically tried
and tested as it becomes part of life's mainstream.
The last twelve months have seen a seemingly endless stream
of symposia and exhibitions exploring the cross over between
Art and Games Culture. The Doors of Perception held last Autumn
in Amsterdam focused on Play, followed earlier this year by
the Synworld conference and exhibition at Public Netbase in
Vienna. June and July saw Los Angeles play host to Interactive
Frictions and Zurich's Design Institute stage their Game Over
exhibition. And towards the end of July, Cracking the Maze
was uploaded as a sub section of the Art & Games issue of
Switch; an on-line publication hosted by the Cadre Institute
in San Jose.
Version 1.0 of Cracking the Maze, curated by Anne-Marie Schleiner,
is a collection of fifteen downloadable and on-line games
described as, "Game Plug-ins and Patches as Hacker Art." A
neat package of work and contextual essays addressing certain
issues already raised on the conference bandwagon. In some
cases, the user is required to own the game on which a patch
is based whereas others download as self contained applications
and can be played immediately. A handful of these games choose
to explore formal, historical and technical aspects of the
genre, although many others focus on the ubiquity of violence
and sexual stereo-typing that continues to prevail in an industry
aimed predominantly at heterosexual teenage boys.
Possibly the oldest piece in this collection is Tina-Bob Shapes
by Loren Petrich. This patch pre-dates the release of official
female heroine games like Tomb Raider, and is a simple modification
of the shoot-and-splatter maze game Marathon. Rather than
controlling the typically muscle-bound Bob (the hero), PetrichÕs
version is navigated through the eyes of Tina, "whose bodily
dimensions are intentionally toned down as a conscientious
reaction to the cartoon proportions of other female patches."
Consequently, Petrich provides us with a more mundane physique
through which we can blast our enemy and solve various puzzles.
Robert Nideffer's Tomb Raider I and II Patches also make changes
to the central character, but instead of replacing the ludicrously
proportioned Lara Croft with someone or something else, Nideffer
makes alterations to her sexual-orientation presenting us
with, "Transsexual Lara", "Butch Lara" and "Lara in Drag."
In so doing, Nideffer erodes the somewhat absurd status of
Croft as a heterosexual sex symbol, while acknowledging that
there are people already fantasising about her polygons.
Similarly, rtmark's SimCopter Hack also takes a critical look
at heterosexual stereo-typing although in this case, rtmark
suggest that their modifications were actually shipped as
part of the original release. Working in league with one of
the programmers of the SimCopter game, rtmark suggest that
they sabotaged, "its heterosexist reward system" by replacing
"bikini-clad babettes" with "homoerotic boy bimbos." According
to rtmark, the game sold 80,000 copies before the alteration
was discovered, but as there was no trace of the game on their
website and as well known purveyors of disinformation, it
is possible that rtmark may be attempting to propagate a myth.
Los Disneys by Jason Huddy is also a patch for Marathon, but
unlike Nideffer and Petrich who have only modified specific
elements of the game, this patch offers us a more immersive
scenario. Set in DisneyworldÕs Magic Kingdom, the player is
at liberty to shoot a selection of Disney characters wandering
amongst tourists armed only with their cameras. The game remains
characteristically bloody and you can even hear the crowdÕs
panic and the cries of children as you blast your way through
the inevitable queues for the various rides. As the game unfolds
it becomes clear that you are there to stop some apocalyptic
Disney conspiracy but the horror of gunning down harmless
pleasure seekers is the most disturbing and poignant aspect
of the game. During these moments, Huddy makes us acutely
aware of the meta-massacre we are enacting. A vision that
is both cynical and tragic, reminding us of the mass-shootings
we see reported more and more frequently via the global news
feeds.
An older science fiction arcade shooter provides the basis
for MongrelÕs Backlash. A straight forward shoot-em-up where
the graphically crude alien monsters of the original game
are transformed into comic representations of British police
officers and members of the Klu Klux Clan. Described as, "a
wake up call for young black youth under threat by ignorance
and racist fools", Backlash makes pertinent use of the gameÕs
old fashioned look and feel to reinforce the obsolescence
and absurdity of racial prejudice. Unlike the graphic violence
of Los Disneys where you are often the irresponsible perpetrator
of atrocity, Backlash forces the outnumbered player to defend
him or herself against the myriad evils of institutional racism.
The game is full of morbid humour, and by identifying the
enemy with such a realworld evil, it becomes all the more
satisfying to play. So it is a shame that Backlash is the
only work in Cracking the Maze that downloads as a limited
demonstration copy designed to increase sales of their full
commercial release. This seems to contradict the whole ideology
of, "Game Plug-ins and Patches as Hacker Art", and by mixing
such candid political subversion with commercial interest,
the game's message is somewhat diluted.
Cracking the Maze can be reached by visiting:
http://switch.sjsu.edu/CrackingtheMaze/ |
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