More Than a Game: The Computer Game as Fictional Form (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: More Than a Game: The Computer Game as Fictional Form Derek A. Burrill (bio) More Than a Game: The Computer Game as Fictional Form. Barry Atkins. Manchester: Manchester U. Press, 2003. Research, writing and theory on computer and video games is in a funny spot these days. As far as its viability as a discipline, it is bit like film studies in the late 1960's—the field has yet to find its central intellectual voices, its intrinsically situated methodologies. And, as far as the games themselves, they still suffer from a reputation as a medium that fails to offer something other than violent excess, time poorly spent, and antisocial grooming. Yes, we have Espen J. Aarseth's Cybertext, an important first incursion. And soon to come, The Journal of Game Studies, published by the University of Southern California, a journal devoted to the theory, history, and criticism of games. But, as a colleague of mine says, what we study is "visually rich, but as of yet, content poor." I am happy to say that Barry Atkins' new book, More Than a Game, shows that such games are worthy of study, particularly from the point of view of narratological analysis. Atkins sets out a clear and achievable task—to analyze the games as a form of fiction and map several individual games, or "texts," using the technique of close textual criticism. In this sense, his book is an excellent introduction for those unfamiliar with computer or video games and how they can function as a type of literary interactive adventure. However, for those who are familiar with the field, this book can also function as a series of useful readings of several of the [End Page 382] most popular and analyzed games of the past decade. Regardless, his book, as an act of analysis, is probing, revealing and tempered. Before moving on to the details of the book, an important point to note is that Atkins, to his credit, has decided to use the term "computer game" instead of "video game," as he is, "interested in the multiplicity of utility . . . of the personal computer that sits on desks at home and at work, and particularly the ways in which this workhorse of labor in the early twenty-first century is where we read computer-based texts both for work and for fun" (20). Much of the current research on games does indeed focus on the visual and its relationship to other related media, particularly film, and for good reason. The growth and mutation of gaming and game culture has always been reciprocal to other media. So, in this sense, Atkins can be situated within what one might call the British Cultural Studies tradition, utilizing a clear, structured methodology and prose style while eschewing the theoretical posturing of poststructuralism or deconstruction. In this sense, this book could not be better realized. The book begins with the retelling of a significant gaming experience, where the author finds a certain sense of surprise at the relative complexity and polyvalency of Close Combat II: A Bridge Too Far (1997), a WWII strategic wargame. Noticing the counterintuitive outcome of the game, Atkins is immediately plunged into a critical conundrum—as realistic (historically, visually, textually) as the game may have been rendered and experienced, he was still able to create an inauthentic result by changing the course of WWTI. He pushes this further: "Here was a form of fictional freedom: I could tell the story again and again and bring the story to a variety of conclusions. Here was a form of fictional restraint: I could only tell the story in a particular way. There really was something here that demanded further thought" (50). The chapters to follow focus on four games, their position in relation to the surrounding culture, and the mechanics of performing close textual analysis on something as resistant, slippery and "low-culture" as a computer game. Chapter II, "Fantastically Real: Reading Tomb Raider" is an expected chapter on a necessary, and unfortunately, over-analyzed game. Atkins' reading of the Tomb Raider series provides significant and useful information to those who have never played the game, and might pique the interest...