Column: 'Save the Robot': Games & The Birth Of The Cool
[Save the Robot is a new, biweekly column from Chris Dahlen crafted specially for GameSetWatch, dealing with gaming as pop culture and cult media.]
Like a lot of music fans, it didn’t take me long to smell something fishy about the latest installment of the Guitar Hero empire. In Guitar Hero III, you’re still playing a cartoonish aspirant to the dream of rock ‘n roll stardom – except in this one, the scenario feels off.
In the first venue, you’re playing a party in someone’s backyard. If you rock hard enough to score an encore, you notice that the crowd is roaring, and then you look over the fence and you see – a cop car! Someone called the cops! Except they’re clapping too! You’re such a hit that even the police don’t have the heart to stop the show. The long-fought war between the pigs and the kids has finally ended.
This was the first in a series of wrong notes that left me with a clammy, phony feeling by the end of the career mode – so phony in fact, that by the time I went to hell and fought the devil in a guitar duel, I could only shrug. Yes, the game is knuckleheaded. But does anyone care?
I know I do. I love pop culture. I'm a committed, committable, always-strung-out culture junkie. Old media or new, comics, TV, books, film, and naturally, music – I need it all, constantly, and the stranger and fringier, the better. Name a film you just saw, and I’ll say the director’s older stuff was better. Tell me about a cult horror flick, and I’ll tell you the one you really need to see. And namedrop your favorite new record, and I’ll say, “Yeah – I liked that stuff better when Bowie/Reed/Eno was doing it.” Sure, I don’t always know what I’m talking about – but I sound like I do.
And that’s half the fun of pop culture: it feels exclusive, in an inclusive way. You get the thrill of catching onto something that millions of other people already knew about. It’s edgy, political and sexualized – but not in a creepy, Second Life-kinda way. It matures you and jades you. It teaches girls about boys and the other way 'round. Sometimes it just plain blows your mind.
Pop culture is "hip." And while games are great, hip is something they ain't.
As much as I love games, I’ve never quite been able to swallow that they belong on the same shelf as the rest of it. It’s not that games have to be brilliant or serious; not all pop culture is “smart.” It’s not that games don’t already tell stories; most of the XBox 360 games I’ve played are full of stories. I usually skip them. And it’s not that games can’t, to use the old benchmark, make you cry. Games make us cry all the time. The Library section of Halo makes me cry. Slamming my knee into a table makes me cry, too. Shouldn’t we aim a little higher?
Cartoonist Chris Ware once cracked that to most people, comic book stores are one step above porno shops. In fact, comic stores are still a step above your local GameStop, because most of them have a section for people like Chris Ware – or say, Alan Moore. Which reminds me: did you know that they’re making a movie of Moore’s and Dave Gibbons’ post-modern superhero classic/cold war allegory/nihilistic mind-screw Watchmen? Well, check this out: did you know director Zack Snyder’s also talking about making a video game of it? If it’s going to be anything like the movie tie-ins I’ve been reviewing all year, then I’m begging you, Moore, please call on that pagan snake god I’ve heard you worship and damn the whole dev team to hell before that turkey hits beta. I don’t want to see Rorschach’s combo moves. I don’t want to pick up the 20 smiley face pins hidden on each map. In fact, if Snyder and colleagues think anybody in that story would make a good playable character, then they read a different graphic novel than the one that still keeps me up at night.
Notice how blithely I assume that a Watchmen game would stink. But obviously, not all games play to the lowest common denominator. Portal, for example, is my game of the year with a bullet – because it never took short cuts, never got lazy, never winked or made excuses. It was subversive, hilarious, and horrifying. Even BioShock fell apart at the end, but Portal was always a step ahead of me, and that’s why I loved it.
It’s pretty apt to think about this in the context of Guitar Hero, because you could argue the series thrives on its gameplay alone. As long as we get to mash the pretty-colored buttons, what else counts? But to think that way ignores the series’ real appeal – and how well it’s nailed its cultural moment.
Every few years since the ’70s, somebody stands up and says that rock is dead – and then some new phenom comes along to resurrect it. But in the ‘00s, after a decade of grunge wore it out, the final nails in its coffin came in the form of a wave of retro-rockers: The Strokes, The White Stripes, and all the other The ____ bands that plagued the US and the UK, who embraced rock by slavishly sticking to its formula. Their success all but proved that rock had nowhere else to go. Finally, we had proof that honest-to-God, traditional blues-rooted rock and roll was a museum piece – and sure, it’s the most fun exhibit in the museum, but it’s in a glass box and it doesn’t have much room to grow.
Throw in the fact that the music biz is dying, CD sales keep falling, and so forth, and it’s clear that the mid-‘00s were the perfect time for people to strap on silly toy guitars and play “Freebird” in front of their PlayStations. Because while people have always played air guitar or sung along holding a hairbrush, there’s something especially right about doing it with Guitar Hero II – and something especially nostalgic about playing through its classic zero-to-hero rock star story, right when that story has become a thing of the past. It’s not that Guitar Hero II was cool, so much as that rock music itself has rapidly lost its cool. In other words, the Guitar Hero series proves once and for all that if a group of boarding school snots like the Strokes can come along and pretend to make rock music, then dammit, anyone can.
But Guitar Hero III has no message, no heart, and no edge. It doesn’t make knowing winks about old Boston rock clubs or out-of-town gig traditions; it’s more like a fratboy yell. And it’s time we raise the bar. If games are going to grow as a genre, some of them have to step up and function as pop culture. We can still have the Tetris’s and the Madden’s and Mario’s, but we need a few games that play to our wits and savvy, and know they’re in on the joke. Because it’s not enough to treat games as a sport, a business, an academic pursuit, or a great way to pass time and kill people. Someday, they’re going to have to be cool.
[Chris Dahlen reviews games for The Onion AV Club, writes about music and technology for Pitchforkmedia.com, and blogs at savetherobot.wordpress.com. Contact him at chris at savetherobot dot com.]
Comments
"It’s not that games don’t already tell stories; most of the XBox 360 games I’ve played are full of stories. I usually skip them"
Im not intending be nasty here or start some flames but coming from a 'games reviewer' that statement just blows my mind in so many ways its hard to think.
How can you review games when you admit you skip the stories? Some games your skipping the meat of the game entirely..
Posted by: Topknot | December 18, 2007 8:16 AM
I was thinking more of the long, awful anime in something like Project Sylpheed, than the story in, say, BioShock. And I sit through them when I have to review the game.
Posted by: Chris Dahlen | December 18, 2007 8:31 AM
As somebody who loves a lot of games with heavy storylines, this kind of blanket statement about skipping cutscenes always peeves me.
It's not movies/story/cutscenes that are the problem... it's BAD movies/story/cutscenes.
Posted by: Joe | December 18, 2007 10:16 AM
Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?
Posted by: Gus Mastrapa | December 18, 2007 10:36 AM
If you're finding Guitar Hero III hollow in its aping of rock culture (I agree - its prequels are parody, the latest entry is just without any kind of character), what do you think of Rock Band? I think it's the exact opposite: it venerates rock, makes it fun and alive, and is pretty damn "cool" if you ask me.
And I think I disagree with the suggestion that games aren't yet regarded or don't yet exist as cool. You've mentioned Portal, what about Tim Schafer's work, Mario Galaxy (yeah it sticks to conventions, but it plays with expectations and structures to make them new), Team Fortress 2...these are games that play to our "wits and savvy." and have a super-sleek veneer. Maybe the problem is that, right now, what's "the cool" in games is only cool within the culture of games themselves, but I think that's changing as well. It's more in the way we treat games that needs to change (and is changing) rather than the games themselves, though obviously there are steps to be made there as well.
As a side note, Carrie Brownstein's entry on her NPR blog about the GH/Rock Band phenomenon has a lot of the same notes as your entry...though you've probably read it.
Posted by: Keane | December 18, 2007 11:34 AM
This vein of gibberish is killing games writing. Every sentence of this is repugnant.
Is it clear to everyone that the thesis of this drivel is that games need to embrace the hipster variation of referential regurgitation? Is there anyone who thinks that line of thought deserves publication?
Posted by: DJH | December 18, 2007 11:42 AM
Behold the gamers did come and the morons did comment that you just insulted *their*game* so should like shut up or something, FAG.
This is why.
The paying punters are demonstratively morons (publishers have graphs and pie charts and everything) and the developers are generally poor with almost zero power.
BTW sadly I know a few comic artists that have ended up in the games industry. Why? Steady paycheck...
Posted by: Kriss Daniels | December 18, 2007 12:25 PM
Not too worry about Alan Moore he's already ticked off at the movie versions of his work and wants no part of them and gives them no sanction.
Posted by: Spot778 | December 18, 2007 12:35 PM
So... games should be 'hip' and 'popular'... just like The Strokes and The White Stripes are popular?
Hip is too subjective a term.
Why consign gaming to the wasteland of popular culture?
Posted by: Seebach | December 18, 2007 12:41 PM
I sort of assumed he was saying the Strokes and White Stripes are shitty or at the very least they are generic.
I liked this article a lot and its too bad it was bound to upset all the game babies who will go back to their game caves, full of unopened games and lists of future purchases and whine about how game storylines are now on par with movies and if only X anime creator was held in high esteem in the united states.
Posted by: James D | December 18, 2007 1:36 PM
GHIII reeked of $$$ above all else. What the fuck was with the Red Bull advertising and near naked women? You're right, it didn't hint at anything and it made horrible presumptions about what rock is but failed - miserably.
I haven't had a chance to play Rock Band but it sounds pretty there from what everyone says. Have to wait till it finally makes it to Australia.
Despite the blanket assumption that many games don't make nods at outside influences, I'd like to direct you to "No One Lives Forever", where you play a sexy hip chick spy. NOLF parodied pop culture, the spy culture and is under used in the "gaming lacks assertive women" argument.
There's other games, though I can't remember their titles, that I distinctly remember made me chuckle with obscure references to film and books. God, wish I could remember their names.
Posted by: Daniel Purvis | December 18, 2007 10:07 PM
Sad to say I've skipped two Rock Band parties because of deadlines in the last week, but I plan to play it soon. I have faith in Harmonix, they're pretty dead-on.
Keane, you're right about Carrie Brownstein's piece - it was fantastic. My favorite part was when she started out skeptical of the whole set-up, but wound up playing the drums for the first time in her life, and loving it.
I only hope the guy who set up her system appreciated who she was and bragged about playing Rock Band with her to all his friends for the next 20 years.
To everyone else, thanks for stopping by what's really my debut column here and kind of a get-to-know-each-other piece. I jump around a lot of topics, so if this didn't ring your bell, let's try again next time.
Posted by: Chris Dahlen | December 19, 2007 5:00 PM
Ah, excellent column!
I think another part of why game stories suck is the fact that, nearly always, the types of stories game storytellers try to tell are THE KINDS OF STORIES THAT WOULDN'T BE OUT OF PLACE IN A BRAIN-DEAD ACTION MOVIE, SPACE OPERA OR EPIC FANTASY OF THE TYPE THAT READS LIKE THE AUTHOR READ THE LORD OF THE RINGS AND THOUGHT TO HIMSELF "HEY, I CAN DO THIS TOO!" RARRGH!!!
Gah. Sorry about that, caps lock key got stuck for a moment. At least, that's my excuse.
Posted by: John H. | December 20, 2007 2:28 AM
Games are continuously becoming more cinematic and I feel that as time progresses we will see more games with better stories. In the past, a game's story only had to suffice to its technical abilities and as these abilities increase, the bar for quality storyline raises with it. Someday games will be as artistically credible as movies, then we will see games worthy of being called "cool". For now, most game storylines will remain filler to keep the player occupied for X amount of time.
Posted by: Josh H. | December 21, 2007 3:29 PM
Thanks for sharing these Xbox 360 thoughts. I’m bookmarking this for future reference.
First we have the Xbox 360 which of course is the next generation in the Xbox line. We also have the Sony PlayStation 3 which is Sony's newest incarnation of the PlayStation which caused quite a ruckus upon its release, and then we have the Nintendo Wii which on its opening day completely sold out all available units
I am currently on holiday so, for this reason, I’ve nothing better to do than surf the web for Xbox 360 games, lie around and update my blog. Well, more or less anyway. Doug
Posted by: Doug | January 13, 2008 7:54 AM
Love rock. Get your point. Love games but think you're missing some stuff. Grand Theft Auto? Halo? Momentous cultural events. Talked about everywhere. Music in games? Playing Tony Hawk with Dead Kennedys on the soundtrack is a way of reminding people that punk used to be cool. Plus games are a new engine of subcultural energy, mostly untapped - look at bands like HORSE the Band mixing gaming with music
Strokes didn't ape garage rock. White Stripes synthasized garage, twee, and pop. We're still talking old rock paradigms - i'm sure something like hiphop, with sampling based aesthic would be more amenable to gaming. Still, i embrace rock...
Posted by: Brimstone | March 24, 2008 11:41 PM