Ryan and cheating
I find it really interesting that Ryan ascribes a moral value to cheating in games, or searching for system failures. On 179, she talks about cheats in the Sims and how gamers look for ways to make the system crack, then goes on to insist that in interactive drama, derailing the narrative isn't enjoyable. There's a real value judgment here, a sense that it's "better" to engage with the program on it's own level, not push to the boundaries. That the digital landscape "works better" if everyone plays by the rules.
I keep thinking of this in terms of the Sims. I have this thing with the Sims, it's such an escape--and a time suck, but that's neither here nor there--and I never play by the rules. I do know all the cheats, I use them frequently because, frankly, I'm not interested in playing someone who is struggling to find a job, furnish a house decently and make time for a partner. I live that life daily. I play the Sims to create a gorgeous house, dabble around with all the fun things they have in the game--the Seasons expansion is like crack, I swear--and have happy families with happy pets and soap opera drama complete with cheating and illegitimate children. And for me, that's not breaking the game, it's creating a different narrative inside the framework of the game in order to explore the world I want to explore. It's like being contrary on purpose in Knights of the Old Republic. Sometimes, you don't want to play by the rules and be a good Jedi. The red lightsabres are always cooler.
I think the only time where it might be better to play by the rules, as it were, might be in interactive games where the interactivity is provided by other players. MMORPGs, journal-based RPGs, anywhere that there's another person who is ostensibly trying to play by the rules as well. This is when cheating isn't pushing the system to the limits--though a lot of times in MMORPGs, it is--it's trying to get advantages over other players in order to advance to a goal. I think once another person enters the digital environment, and it needs to be another person, not just a computerized idea of a person, issues like fairness begin to matter more. Until then, if you break the system, it's not like the game has feelings. It's just code.
I keep thinking of this in terms of the Sims. I have this thing with the Sims, it's such an escape--and a time suck, but that's neither here nor there--and I never play by the rules. I do know all the cheats, I use them frequently because, frankly, I'm not interested in playing someone who is struggling to find a job, furnish a house decently and make time for a partner. I live that life daily. I play the Sims to create a gorgeous house, dabble around with all the fun things they have in the game--the Seasons expansion is like crack, I swear--and have happy families with happy pets and soap opera drama complete with cheating and illegitimate children. And for me, that's not breaking the game, it's creating a different narrative inside the framework of the game in order to explore the world I want to explore. It's like being contrary on purpose in Knights of the Old Republic. Sometimes, you don't want to play by the rules and be a good Jedi. The red lightsabres are always cooler.
I think the only time where it might be better to play by the rules, as it were, might be in interactive games where the interactivity is provided by other players. MMORPGs, journal-based RPGs, anywhere that there's another person who is ostensibly trying to play by the rules as well. This is when cheating isn't pushing the system to the limits--though a lot of times in MMORPGs, it is--it's trying to get advantages over other players in order to advance to a goal. I think once another person enters the digital environment, and it needs to be another person, not just a computerized idea of a person, issues like fairness begin to matter more. Until then, if you break the system, it's not like the game has feelings. It's just code.