Using games as a documentary medium

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Poperamone

Using games as a documentary medium

Post by Poperamone »

Hi Thumbers,

I was wondering if I could pick your collective brains...

I am currently studying for a MA in games design in the UK and am trying to do some research for my dissertation.

I am looking into how games can be used to tell a true story or as a documentary.

For instance the cat and the coup http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cat_and_the_Coup

has any one stumbled across any other examples of documentary games I could use as research?


Thanks guys
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Scrustle
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Re: Using Games as a documentary medium

Post by Scrustle »

Thumbers? Not heard that one before.

Finding games that fit the description of what you're looking for are probably very few, but I'll see if I can be of some help.

While it's not a documentary, the story of "Braid" is often described as being a metaphor for the development of the atomic bomb, so perhaps you could get something out of that.

The unreleased "Six Days in Fallujah" was a military shooter that recounted actual events. Although it may not be that useful since you can't actually play the game, there's still a lot of info out there about it, and might be a pretty good case study.

There are a couple of indie games that have been getting attention recently which are based around the troubles and lives of their creators, if that counts. One called "I Get This Call Every Day" is about working in a call centre, and another called "Cart Life" is about running a small food cart in a busy city, while trying to support your family. Anna Anthropy has also created some similar games like this, with games about gender identity disorder and depression, among other things.

Can't really think of anything more than that. Not many games really document actual events. Not big historical events any way. I guess the stigma that games are just "toys" puts people off the idea. But maybe you could look at some strategy games too. Things like the Total War or Civilisation series. They're based around real events in history, even if you can change them quite a lot. They're not very personal though.
Poperamone

Re: Using Games as a documentary medium

Post by Poperamone »

It sure is a difficult topic, which is why I am interested in taking it on. I don't see why it cant be done

Yes I was going to reference Six Days in Falluja, but its hard to find anything about it that is recent. There is an Arma Mod that has a similar idea though.

Braid is an interesting idea, I like the idea of metaphors, its difficult to avoid too obscure. Same as 'real life events' such as total war/COD as it seems a little too far away from reality.

Cheers for your suggestions
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Scrustle
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Re: Using Games as a documentary medium

Post by Scrustle »

Well the Fallujah thing isn't really a recent thing, so it seems unlikely you will find recent stuff out there about it. One good place I've seen the topic covered is on the "Extra Credits" web series:



A general search on Youtube also seems to bring up a decent amount of stuff.

I was thinking about also suggesting the Assassin's Creed series as well, since that has a lot of real history in it, although again it's not really a documentary. But taking inspiration from another Extra Credits episode might help find a way to add it in, or find different examples. Their episode on tangential learning:

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NokkonWud
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Re: Using Games as a documentary medium

Post by NokkonWud »

Both Journey games tell the story of life and the finality of death.
Poperamone

Re: Using Games as a documentary medium

Post by Poperamone »

NokkonWud wrote:Both Journey games tell the story of life and the finality of death.
yea but im trying to avoid too many Metaphors and trying to go for more real life examples. Im defiantly going to explore that
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Chopper
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Re: Using Games as a documentary medium

Post by Chopper »

Check out Unmanned, by molleindustria. It's not documentary as such but provides a great take on the drone eats in Afghanistan. There's a rich vein of stuff there if you wanted to explore it - the Internet is full of stuff about video gamers being ideal for flying these drones.

Admittedly I haven't read any of it but the game is excellent.

I take it you haven't proposed this as a dissertation topic yet, you're just checking if it'll fly?
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Chopper
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Re: Using Games as a documentary medium

Post by Chopper »

Drone wars, not drone eats. Goddamnit
Todinho

Re: Using Games as a documentary medium

Post by Todinho »

On biographical games there are many I can think: Papo and Yo,cart life, the russian adventure game the kite,and D4sidia or something I cant really remember the name but it was something like this and it deals with the struggles of the creator and gender I didnt like it very much but it might serve for you,on documentary games I can think of unmanned like it was said and september 12 also there was 2 games,that I dont remember the name,on IOS that talked about worker conditions of westerns companies in china and one about the Syrian war,Apple took them out because they are stupid but it made news so I think you could find them,hope I was able to help.
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Alex79
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Re: Using Games as a documentary medium

Post by Alex79 »

NokkonWud wrote:Both Journey games
Both Journey games? Wha?
Todinho

Re: Using games as a documentary medium

Post by Todinho »

He must mean this one too :D
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NokkonWud
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Re: Using Games as a documentary medium

Post by NokkonWud »

Alex79uk wrote:
NokkonWud wrote:Both Journey games
Both Journey games? Wha?
Yeah, complete and utter brain fart on my part.
What I actually meant was Passage! Doh!
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Electric Crocosaurus
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Re: Using games as a documentary medium

Post by Electric Crocosaurus »

You might want to take a look at Depression Quest. While it doesn't tell a biographical story as such it does aim to put the player in the place of a real world disease.

http://www.depressionquest.com/
link6616

Re: Using games as a documentary medium

Post by link6616 »

While not documentary...

The Phoenix Wright series is actually a surprisingly serious (yes that's right) commentary on the Japanese Legal system, which at the time it was published, prosecuting attorneys would win... 90% of all cases? Which eventually resulted in a decline of defense attorneys as well. It's not documentary as such, but's certainly a commentary directly dealing with issues within the country, issues of inept police, perceptions of the legal system being corrupted, a feeling of presumed guilty and never innocent.

Ultimately not what you are looking for, but I think we really have only very recently gained enough understanding of what the medium can/can't do enough to seriously attempt this kind of thing, and interactivity to some extent also directly hinders the telling of a past factual truth. Although historical grand strategy games have a lot to say about general cultural movements.
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