"Good cybersportsmen should be caught at school": an interview with game studies specialist Alexander Vetushinsky

Alexander Vetushinsky is a philosopher, employee of the Moscow Center for Video Game Research and an expert at the Sberbank Gamification Laboratory. He teaches game studies at Moscow State University, the Higher School of Economics and the Institute of Business and Design. He recently came out book “Igrodrom. What you need to know about video games and gaming culture. "

Lifehacker talked to Alexander and found out how video games can help solve real problems humanity, what to expect from the gaming industry in the future and how people earn by fighting in the World of Warcraft.

Game studies as a scientific discipline

- What is game studies?

- Game studies is the study of video games using the methods of the humanities. And there can be many approaches to the study: from the side of sociology, cultural studies, psychology, literature.

In Russia, it turned out that game studies gathered around philosophy. Although, for example, in Europe, the study of video games grew out of the literary school - they were studied as a kind of text.

Important: game studies do not teach you how to make games, game studies study games. This is a theoretical discipline, and there is little applied side to it. For example, marketing research is beyond our competence.

- Why study them?

- One of the reasons why game studies exist is the desire to understand what else game worlds can be. For example, if the developers release a game about Middle Ages, and it works according to the principles of modern capitalist economics, game studies raise the questions: “Are we not able to see another way of economic interaction? What would it look like? "

Or, for example, why not try to see a different type of civilizational development, different from what is in the game "Civilization"?

Why not try to see a different form of interpersonal communication - not the same as in The sims?

Thanks to the activities of game studies specialists, more and more developers appear who think: "Why not try to do something differently?"

- What about the real world?

- Yes, another task of game studies is the study of the real world through video games. Don't think that the virtual environment is radically different. In it, we find the same spectrum of problems that exist in the real world.

For example, the problem of negative attitudes towards migrants. In third world countries, where people who cannot leave the country have to go to work in virtual worlds. This phenomenon is called gold farming.

Digital migrants upgrade characters, collect gear, sell it in other markets, where it is more expensive, and get paid for it. They essentially work in the game for 24 hours in shifts.

It is then that conflicts begin - absolutely the same as in modern society. Digital migrants come to locations, kill ordinary players and take their gear from them. The latter begin to get angry and say: "Bring me home!"

This is how forms of xenophobia, homophobia, sexism, and racism are embodied in the virtual world. Although, it would seem, he had to destroy it all.

Even in games where gender differences are hidden, a form of verbal violence appears in the spirit of "You shoot like a girl!"

Studying video games is fun because many of the things that have always interested us converge in them. This is also a market, because game development is a colossally successful industry with a lot of money. This is also society - the global gaming communities. This is also culture, because video games reflect different aspects of it: both conservative values ​​and the concept of alternative worlds without various forms of oppression.

- Is the study of role-playing games, board games or those that were in The Squid Game, no longer game studies?

- Initially, no. Studied only video games. The first scientific journal, which appeared in 2001 and paved the way for this profile, was called Game Studies. It had a postscript on it: "Computer Video Game Research."

Video games have begun to be studied separately, in part because some of their types have already been explored in other scientific papers. For example, ethnographers described the games of other peoples. But their description was built into cultural research. There was no separate academic tradition dedicated to the study of games.

It began to take shape only in the 1930s, when it came out book Homo ludens ("Man playing") by Johan Huizinga. A more serious understanding of this phenomenon began with her.

But now, 20 years after the advent of game studies, we see that other types of games are increasingly discussed at scientific conferences: tabletop, role-playing, sports. The formed language and tools of game studies allow expanding the research field.

- Are game studies engaged in the study of gamification of routine actions? For example, we have a scheduler application in which an animal dies if you haven't done any exercises. Is this still a field of game studies?

- This is an interesting moment! Due to the fact that the field of game studies has expanded, separate areas have emerged that exist almost autonomously: these are "serious games", gamification and game-based learning.

"Serious games" are games that are not meant to be fun. For example, educational: Rabbids Coding (2019), Attentat 1942 (2017), DragonBox Big Numbers (2016).

At first glance, it seems that to make them, you need to use the usual game-design approaches. But this is not the case. We can create a good game in terms of game design, but it will be completely useless for the educational process.

Therefore, a slightly different composition of experts gathers around the "serious games": programmers, specialists in specific sciences (mathematicians, biologists, historians), representatives of the business environment (managers, marketers).

Game-based learning is the integration of video games into education. There is less interest for the gaming industry, but more participation from other agents - educational companies and institutions.

It's the same with gamification. Within its framework, they study, for example, what new game approaches to introduce, conduct experimental tests - what works and does not work with a person. This is a field separate from game studies. It is more applied and practical.

Game studies study games, while gamification and game-based learning are about how to use game techniques to achieve some goals.

- How are video games studied? What game studies methods are there for this?

- Game studies do not create new research methods, but provide an opportunity to use old ones in a new way. For example, anthropologists can come to an MMO game Massively multiplayer online game. and study the rituals of gamers there. And visual researchers - to work in the space of concept art and design of game worlds.

Explore the world through play

- How to learn something about the world and about our culture with the help of game studies?

“With the help of video games, we can create new alternative worlds and live in them, while studying them in parallel. And if some alternative systems turn out to be more efficient and effective, why not start implementing them in the real world?

For example, we found out that gamification helps to change a person's sense of self in the cruel world of the modern capitalist system. It hides the flaws of capitalism by making work a game.

Metaverse, or metaverse The Metaverse is a concept of a digital world that combines "physical", augmented and virtual reality, in which people can live through their digital copy. , develops this theme, because it makes it possible to live in a different space in the long term. There we will be able to create, for example, other forms of economic relations. And then, perhaps, we will be able to understand which of them work better than the existing ones.

The metaverse can become an experimental environment where alternative worldviews are processed. And we can choose the best among them.

But this is far from it. So far, we can only say that video games give us an interesting metaphor for talking about our world, our relationships and how everything works around us.

- Can knowledge about economics, for example, in World of Warcraft, help solve real economic problems?

- All games are about economics. If the user accumulates at least something (points, points, coins) - this is already an economic model.

These models need to be controlled so that gamers interest persisted. For example, to introduce a system of zeroing - when points burn out in certain conditions, or seasonality, removing and adding something to the store at one time or another.

And the people who are in the game economics can really tell something useful to the real economists. For example, Edward Kastronova was one of the first to compare the game currency with real equivalents and calculated how much money would be spent in a digital battle, how much the main character's ammunition would cost, and so on Further.

MMO games can be viewed as a form of work. The players have duty come there. There they make friends, associates with whom they need to attend various events. In a sense, they begin to live an alternative life.

And the involvement that people have in MMO games really deserves attention. Perhaps, having analyzed it, it will be possible to answer the question of how to involve a person in the real economy.

- Why do some users like to play as fundamentally different characters? Men - for women, young people - for the elderly.

- Firstly, it is a certain element of playing practice. There are a lot of dress-ups in non-digital games too. For children, for example, this is a very important process: they try different roles and, based on this, better understand their own.

In addition, it is important that this “dressing up” is related to the relative safety that the game provides. And this makes it possible to experiment. We know that our lives are not on the line, so we can change the gender, pretentious put on makeup, add yourself extra limbs.

Secondly, we can visit the body of the Other. It is more of a fan, to amuse yourself and your friends. But when we talk about social responsibility, this is a good opportunity to actually learn something about the Other. It's great if a man, playing a female character, better understands what it's like to be a woman.

- How much do fem-criticism of video games or research with decolonial optics help in solving real problems?

- Theorists working in these areas always find some breaking points and suggest revising the versions of the existing game world - in the name of improving the real world. Because without this, you simply cannot build a better reality.

They notice that there is little otherness in video games right now. And we need to build a different attitude towards it - to change the practice of the language and diversify the set of persons.

This is not an attempt at imposition or propaganda. This is an attempt to show an alternative world that perfectly exists at the same time. Like, look: a homosexual hero - is this some kind of catastrophe? Is this something scary?

And the gaming industry is picking up on this cultural trend well. First, it is economically beneficial for her. Secondly, it has grown so much that it is no longer possible to admit the irresponsibility that was before.

The gaming industry is no longer solely owned by disgruntled teenagers and male sexists.

- And because of this, a conflict is born? For example, when they criticize the sexualized outfits of video game heroines.

- Yes. I'll explain now. The gaming industry is only 50 years old - that is, it is only the second generation of gamers (and in some regions it is generally the first). And she has already survived two revolutions. Indie-revolution - when many new manufacturers appeared. And casual - when they began to make games with a minimum entry threshold, open to everyone.

What did we get in the end? A situation in which there has never been such a diverse audience that consumes and produces video games.

And so new people came to the gaming community, they were horrified by everything that was happening there, and pointed out the problem of sexism. The old audience began to resent. There was a conflict.

But it's not that old school gamers are staunch sexists and homophobes. They are simply afraid that their childhood will be taken away from them.

Playing regularly for ten years, they can no longer notice sexism. It is some form of the unconscious.

For example, for many fantasy RPG fans, the armored bra is canon. But when a person comes into this environment who has not lived the entire history of fantasy, starting with the covers of magazines and the first genre RPGs, he immediately pays attention to it.

So gradually the standard that the main character should be a white heterosexual man who emotionlessly cuts everyone, and the woman loves him for it, is becoming a thing of the past.

Now we just hit the breaking point. Most likely, the third generation of gamers will no longer remember this conflict.

- Who is a gamer? For example, can you call a granny on the subway playing word games as a gamer?

- Yes. I understand why many find it difficult to choose a term. The point is that the old game guard came up with the myth of the hardcore gamer. Like, look: girls-gamers - 51%, and men - 49%. But in fact, there are more men, it's just that women are playing some kind of underplay, they are under-game. The ideology of hardcore gamers is their last bulwark of defense.

The hardcore gamer myth is fueled by a large but limited community that fights to keep the old, familiar way of life. However, this strategy is doomed.

Yes, RPGs are really hard to get into if you've never played before. But now we have a gradation - you can start with a simple casual game "three in a row"And gradually come to a complex MMO. Simple, not because it is easy to pass, but because it is open to many: grandmothers and children who have not yet learned to speak play it. Fortunately, there are now many "tycoons" (simplified RPGs) - action games that you can train on.

- How can video games change a person?

- What is on the surface: our speech practices are changing, we are starting to use game metaphors: "I pumped!" or "I've moved to a new level."

Another moment - psychotherapeutic. While playing, the gamer is engaged in self-therapy. He feels more needed, more important, more competent. It's cool because it allows him to reboot and return to the real world refreshed.

Jane McGonigal says: "We need to make it clear to the gamer that his victories in the game are real victories, because we lack that feeling." After all, now practically no one is doing something global - something that can affect the whole world. And the feeling “I can change something” is becoming a thing of the past, becoming the property of old times.

And video games charge us with the mood of a winner, the mood of people who can change something. You need to learn how to cultivate and use it in reality.

But here the public attitude must change. People are taught to think that their actions in virtual worlds are worthless. Like "You saved the world, but it's not real." But it doesn't matter if he is real or not.

When we look Horror, then we realize that the cause of our fear is fictitious, but the feeling we are experiencing is real. It's the same with video games. The trigger for our feeling "I am a winner" may not be real, but the feeling is real, and we can work with it further.

Play as a cultural and social phenomenon

- Why are video games not on a par with cinema and theater?

- It practically happened. Although now, perhaps, there are not enough intermediaries. There is no critic or curator who could guide us in this area, because there are a lot of games and they are all different.

But when talking about contributing to a larger culture, it's important to emphasize that not all games have this potential. Because the game industry is primarily a story about big money. All other processes are on the periphery. But yes, sometimes reputational projects are presented. For example, Death Stranding or Last of us ii.

If the developers only wanted money, such games would not need to be made at all. It would be necessary to switch to MMO or mobile phones, having scored on the strange anachronism of the story game. Because such projects are being done for a long time, and there is always a risk of not making money on them.

Compared to them mobile games launch faster and bring money faster. This is the fastest growing segment of the gaming market.

- Can video games be viewed as objects of art?

- Some yes. Since the 1990s and 2000s, video games have intersected with other forms of culture. Game art is emerging, where artists use game design tools as a new form of canvas and paint. On the site of the center Ars Electronica you can find examples of such works.

- What other examples of game expansion into other genres are there?

Bandersnatch (episode "Black mirror") Is one example on the surface. In this series, users decide for the main character what to do.

«Hardcore"- a film shot from the first person. This strategy is clearly taken from video games, because they taught us to evaluate events in this way. The technique itself has been known for a long time, from the time Hitchcock. But before Hardcore, there weren't any projects using it throughout the film.

Interestingly, in the 90s, games tried to take cliches from the cinema. Now, on the contrary, filmmakers are trying to find interesting examples from video games.

About the present and future of video games

- Has society become less conservative about video games?

- Of course it did. The play for kids trail has been established Nintendo in the 80s. But the attitude towards them has changed a lot. Now governments around the world are realizing that games can generate good profits through taxes. Therefore, we need to somehow help this market.

I think Russia will soon start supporting Russian gaming companies. For them, I hope, such conditions will be created so that when they receive the first big profit, they do not go abroad, as is usually the case. Most likely, the first Russian reputational project cannot be done without the help of the state.

What exactly says about the shift in social mood is the dissertation work of psychologists. Until 15 years ago, they were negative. A set of stereotypes was broadcast: “Video games are coming! Necessary save children from this misfortune! " And now, even in the psychological community, they are gradually beginning to talk about the positive aspects of the phenomenon.

This was facilitated by the "Stream" by Mihai Csikszentmihalyi - book about happiness, in which game examples constantly appear. He writes that play is a simple way to be in a state of "flow", to be fully involved in the process. Game designers took his idea and developed it into a "flow theory" that needs to be guided in order for the game to appeal to users.

- How do you rate the coolness of the game for yourself? And do you evaluate at all?

- Probably, I appreciate it. I enjoy spending time in game worlds. I like to check what can and cannot be done. Asking questions to the game world and trying to find answers in it.

However, now that a lot of work, I no longer force myself to go through every game to the end. I calmly throw it away if I generally understood how it works, but at the same time did not experience the feeling that the game was sinking.

Researching video games is much more difficult than researching movies. You can watch a movie every day. But it’s impossible to go through the game every day.

This is not an area for singles. There is no person who plays everything. We have a team and we communicate with each other - each has a different gaming experience. For example, I am primarily a console engineer. A number of my friends play exclusively on computers. The lack of experience of one is compensated by the experience of the other.

- Will video games begin to be taught in schools?

- Video games won't be learned in schoolsuntil, for example, they begin to study cinema. And I'm not sure how necessary it is in the school curriculum. But this will definitely be done in universities, and not only in game design, but also in various profiles of liberal arts education.

Now e-sports circles are appearing in schools. And this is justified. Esports has a pretty tough age limit, and reaction times start to dull quickly. Therefore, it is necessary to catch good e-sportsmen at school.

- What awaits us in the future?

- I'm sure there will be console games, games for mobile devices and computers. Arcade - perhaps the only thing that will completely disappear into the past. Although in Japan this genre is now flourishing.

Perhaps VR will become a new round of arcade culture. But so far, the potential of augmented reality games has not been revealed at all. I am looking forward to the VR / AR revolution and I think it will happen in this decade. The simplest futurology.

1980s - decade of consoles; 1990s - the generation of computer games; zero - online games; the first half of the 2010s - active distribution of mobile games; the second half of the 2010s - VR / AR. It was then that Half Life, Pokemon Go, aLix appeared. The 2020s are likely to give us something more radical - we better understand what kind of VR and AR environments and what games are most suitable for them.

I think the first mistakes when working with VR consisted in the fact that we tried to cram into this format games that were not created for it - more classic and familiar.

I also believe the metaverse is inevitable. There are usually three types of games: bodily, board, and digital. And I think the metaverse will open a portal to digital reality where we will have a new digital body. A new form of bodily play will emerge: it will be both our and non-our digital bodies. And we will be able to do what we could not do with the help of physical bodies.

What kind of body digital reality will give us, what it will be capable of and what forms of new bodily games (new football, hockey) we can find - for now, the question is.

Meta (formerly Facebook) has already announcedMark Zuckerberg says a new skin-like material could support metaverse ambitions / CNBC a suit with which we can experience some real sensations in the metaverse.

These tools will penetrate the reality around. For example, we are currently communicating on Zoom. But it would be more pleasant to be in the park, among the green spaces, sitting at a nice wooden table. Perhaps the metaverse will allow you to do that as well.

Blitz-survey

- Snake or Tetris?

- Tetris.

- Which video game surprised you the most?

- Metal Gear Solid.

- Game studies study family values ​​in The Sims, ecology in Minecraft. What can you learn in Dota ‑ 2?

- Speech practices adolescents.

- Top 3 cool but not well known indie games?

- "Knock-knock-knock", Everything and Proteus.

- A game in which you do not have to use violence and in which no one dies?

- "League of Enthusiasts-Losers".