Gaming as Period Pieces

                         

In various conversations, V, K, and myself decided that on the weekends each of us would post a short piece on a given broad topic, and or Most Glorious Master, Otaku K, put on her big girl clothing and decided that this weekend the topic would be "period pieces". Ok, it was a bit of a democratic selection process in which I was outvoted 2-to-abstain, but still. 

So I started thinking about period pieces to write about. I recently saw two seasons of Borgias (not the Showtime version) on Netflix, I've seen an episode or two of Tudors, I've seen a few films that deal with Victorian or Medieval era characters, but nothing that really caught my attention. Then, I thought: what if I write about videogames?

Why not indeed. Let's give it a try.

Videogames have been the source of much debate. From one of the greatest film critics saying that videogames cannot be art (rest in peace, Ebert) to one of the most prominent videogame scholars saying that videogame analysis should focuson ludic elements to a top videogame scholar creating a reductive taxonomyauthoritatively stating what is and is not a game (a taxonomy that, curiously, supports his claims that videogames are not about story, and you can thank Jesper Juul for this one), people have seen videogames as a mechanics-only form of media that is somehow less than otherforms of art. Of course, not everyone agrees with this. People ranging from scholars attempting to establish a videogame canon to museums creatingvideogame exhibits to scholars exploring the narrative potential of videogameshave also explored the non-ludic aspects of gaming. One such aspect that has largely been left unexplored is whether games can incorporate literary or artistic traditions into their design. For this piece, I will hastily attempt to answer the question of whether videogames can be period pieces. 

A period piece, hastily defined, is essentially a work of art set in any period past and which attempts to depict said period in a non-fictional manner, even though the stories themselves may be (and most often are) fictional.  There aren't very many games that do this. Most games set in previous periods do so in fictional worlds, as is the case of Bioshock Infinite's Colombia. However, there are some titles that do accurately depict periods and could be considered period pieces. Although Assassin's Creed games are the first to come to mind, I want to tackle L.A. Noire instead. 

L.A. Noire is set late 1940s L.A. Players take the role of officer Cole Phelps as he solves crimes. The design of the world is a fairly accurate digital version of 1940s L.A., with historical buildings and landmarksbeing present in the game.

The way in which characters communicate, dress, and act, are reminiscent of corresponding aspects as presented on the films and literatures of the time.  This should not be surprising given the amount of effort that went into recreating the period. In an interview, Team Bondi founder Brendan McNamara said that  "Each object, each street, each investigation is a result of research using archived images and film as to make the perfect illusion that you are there." And the effort pays off.  Trolley systems, traffic patterns, construction methods, architecture... the way in which these elements arere-created is indeed masterful. 

The story of Cole Phelps serves as the fuel of this period piece.  The way in which he converses with people, behaves with a 1940s demeanor, and even shows complex personality traits through his actions when they conflict with his ideals make it a great period story to be told through  gaming. The fact that the game's aesthetic resemble those of the Noir films popular during this era give the title more credibility. 

For the sake of space, let me make the rest of this as short as possible: videogames can be period pieces, L.A. Noire is a great example of this.

So yeah... there you go...

... still waiting for our glorious leader to put up her discussion of the day....