Identification, Identity, Film & Games
I have been trying to work through my comparative analysis of video games (FFX-2) and film (TNBC), but I have been coming to a few annoying brick walls. In my previous (and thesis) work, dealing with mmog's - the concept of identity works well since there is a (larger) element of player authorship in game progression. Identification in it's empathetic and sympathic terms [re:Neill A., 1996] in that a player merely identifies with or for a character has been stumping me.

Since a character - an avatar - is a mere coded artefact, then we can only feel feelings for it.. we can merely be sympathetic. The feelings of vertigo I get when playing Velixious in EverQuest are merely vertigo FOR Velix. Fear of her falling, fear of her going splat. I am not feeling what she is feeling since she has no emote of fear. I cannot feel her feelings since I cannot identify them.

This, I suppose, is the big difference between film and games - at least mmog's (since I have yet to see a cut scene in an mmog). In film, I am given clues to the character's emotion through their acting. They display the appropriate feelings for the scene (or the inappropriate feelings depending on the character...) therefore we can experience feelings through the character. In terms of video games, without the cut scenes, we are not given the same social/emotional clues as we are given in film.

And where does identity fit in? And whose identity are we talking about? It was relatively clear for my mmog research - as the player is the one who develops the character (through levelling, social and game experience). But in the case of film - is there any connection between spectator and identity? Are we talking of the identity of the spectator being affected by the film or are we talking about the identity of the characters within the film, and how they are developped? I suppose these are the questions I need to tackle in my presentation on March 13th... on month to figure it out .. hmm