Synergy of Computer Games and Films
Computer games and films have had a complicated history together. While some see them as purely separate forms of media and entirely different, others see them as intertwined in both their narratological developments and their ability to enthral their respective audiences. Films have been around for over 100 years with the invention of the Kinetophonograph in the late 1880s [1] with talkies (Films with sound rather than silence) occurring in the late 1920s. This has allowed films to have a long time to evolve and become more complex forms of media than the original silent films such as those of Chaplin and Buster Keaton. Films are now part of a much larger experience, allowing viewers an insight into various periods of history as well as various emotional states that actors can portray. They are also worth a huge sum of money with many film productions of recent years costing in the 100s of millions of dollars, and actors commanding fees of 10s of millions to star in the films. In comparison computer games are relatively behind on these developments. Having only been in mainstream culture for the past 30 years, and only to a particularly noticeable degree in the last 10 years, the game media has a lot of catching up to do. Crawford argued that games suffer from movie envy [2] in their attempts at being the same as films. It is also arguable that most games have relatively simplistic storylines compared to some films but this will be examined in depth further on. An examination of the sometimes tenuous relationship between films and games will be conducted, as well as a look at techniques that both forms of media share.
The relationship between films and games
The links between films and games at its simplest level is associated with film tie in games. Arguably the first method that games were able to be connected to films in some way, involved developers acquiring licenses to popular films and creating games based (often loosely) around the storyline and characters of the film. These games often made a considerable amount of money as they were released at the same time as the film, meaning people were often caught up with the hype of the film and wanting to be part of it somehow. Unfortunately due to often tight time constraints, with developers being forced to release games in time for the films launch, many of these games were quite poor in quality. There are many possible explanations for this, one person explanation would be that due to the designer being constrained by the films storyline, they were unable to use their own creative elements to produce a better quality game. Other more technical problems were due to some games simply being released unfinished, with various bugs that the designers ran out of time to fix before release. One particular film game that had the potential to be great was that of the Matrix game: Enter The Matrix. This game was fully backed by the films writers, the Wachowski brothers, with them producing a 244 page script for the game. A suggestion that finally there would be a seamless flow between films and games. Unfortunately the game was critically slated and deemed as extremely mediocre and a good opportunity missed. [3] Strangely perhaps, it still did reasonably well regarding sales figures, selling 1 million units in its first week of release. [4] Van De Walle does argue that as the gaming industry gets bigger, the way that deals are made is changing, allowing games to be developed more or less in tandem with

movies.citing the Lord of The Rings games as examples of better movie games. This franchise of films seem to be one of the few to have mostly good games produced from it. [5] However, this franchise is an exception. In the past year games such as Open Season, Meet the Robinsons and TMNT have been released based on the films of the same name and have been for the most part average and extremely simple to play. TMNT earned a rating of 6.4 from Gamespot on release [6] yet managed to sell enough to gain the number one position in the UK All Formats Chart in April 2007, beating many superior titles such as Guitar Hero 2 and Command Conquer 3.

Films based on Games

In recent years the concept of tie ins between games and films have switched to films being made based on popular games. Again, similar things have occurred with many of them being distinctly average. Films such as Tomb Raider, Resident Evil and Doom did relatively well at the box office but were seen as rather poor in quality. Other films such as Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter failed both at the box office and at being an average film. The only exception research has been able to find by looking at The Internet Movie Database (imdb.com) is that of Silent Hill, a slightly less action packed and more cerebral game which was a third person adventure game, turned into a more psychological thriller than action film. It is interesting to note that games seem to be turned into action films, and the games used tend to be action based and violent. Considering there are more story based games such as Final Fantasy and Oblivion, it seems somewhat strange that the games turned into films tend to be action ones. CGI based films were created for Final Fantasy, The Spirits Within and Advent Children, but they failed to build upon the story set by the various Final Fantasy games. One argument for this failure is that games are unable to have as complex stories as films. Although comprising of detailed stories, they are simply not as deep or as emotional as in films. Juul suggests this in his article on games and narrative. [7] It is arguable that this is incorrect though and that stories within games can invoke emotion from the player, such as the famous death scene of Aeris in Final Fantasy VII. [8]

Connections between Films and Games
Besides games and films sharing tie in products, there are also a number of connections showing how they are both starting to share similar demographics. With the development of new technologies for viewing films such as HD-DVD and Blu Ray disc mediums, further expansion has been formed with the ability to potentially store both a film and a game on the same disc. In July 2006 Dreamworks, the major film studio associated with Steven Spielberg, declared their belief that in the future a game and movie can be put on one Blu Ray disc thus shrinking the gap between the two different ways of interacting with a story. [9] However they estimate that this wont occur until the release of Playstation 4 at some undesignated future time, considering the Playstation 3 has only been released for the last month in Europe. The release of the X-Box 360s marketplace features have also enabled players to acquire films through their games console. As well as players being able to download
demos of games (including film tie ins such as Shrek 3), players are also able to download a selection of films and film trailers. Currently a player is able to download films such as Saw 3, The Departed and Babel. [10] Each new release film costs 480 points in HD resolution (Around $6) or 360 points for a classic film in HD resolution (Around $4.50). All films are also available in standard definition for a lower price. Currently this service is only available within the US but is a prominent sign of the shift of games and their consoles to become a more encompassing media centre and also making films and games relevant to the same audience. In a similar vein film review magazines such as the British publication Empire offer both film and game reviews in their magazine showing a convergence of similar tastes in both films and games for the audience drawn to such a magazine.

Machinima

There are also more obvious links between games and films such as the concept of Machinima. Machinima is the term given to films created through using a game engine. Most popularly used engines are from FPS games such as Half Life and Unreal Tournament. Some films have also been created using MMORPG game engines such as World of Warcraft. Film festivals have even been devised for this specific form of film, such as that devised by Machinima.com [11] which provided awards to certain films for such accomplishments as best picture, best series, best technical achievement and best music; much like in more conventional film awards such as the Oscars. The website also provides a number of tutorials on filming techniques and film theory to aid machinima directors in creating films through the use of computer animated characters already designed by game developers. As well as being inexpensive compared to arranging real people and cameras, a director simply needs to have the game installed and a few inexpensive tools to achieve the correct look; it also enables people to re-enact their own ideas through the use of their favourite game characters thus extending the game ideas into a virtual world created and enhanced by the director. While some of this machinima can seem slightly amateurish, others have become cult hits such as Red Vs Blue [12] a machinima science fiction series based on the Halo game engine which has become so popular the creators have made 5 seasons, comprising of 78 episodes, of the series. It has also been released on the X-Box 360 marketplace to download for a minimal fee. DVDs are also available from the Red Vs Blue site. [13] Other machinima seeks to replicate popular films and scenes from films. One of the most well known pieces of machinima is that of A Few Good G-Men. [14] This machinima is based on the Half Life 2 engine, it is a re-enactment of the famous court room scene from the Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson film A Few Good Men. Uploaded to Machinima.com in July 2005 it has had 21,000 views and is also available on Youtube and Google videos. In a similar fashion, recently a group of World of Warcraft players created a Warcraft version of the historical action film 300. [15] Requiring slightly less skill than the aforementioned piece due to the fact that all players can move without the need to program a script beforehand, it is still quite an impressive piece, if nothing else but due to its innovative idea.

These machinima while providing amateur film directors an opportunity to create their own stories do have some minor problems associated with them. Due to their nature they have a relatively limited audience for the most part, unless they are lucky to be noticed as well as Red Vs Blue. It is also arguable that they lose some human element to their stories due to the fact that computer animated and controlled characters are used, while they have some human interaction to them, they are still not real which means the audience may feel slightly detracted from the plot.
Cinematic Video Games and Video Game Cinema
There have been some quite noticeable connections indicating movies paying homage to games and taking ideas from them. Most noticeably The Matrix in 1999 with its large amount of stylised violence shown in slow motion akin to the bullet time movements in the game Max Payne. One famous graphics card benchmarking program called 3d Mark 2003 even uses a graphics sequence of Max Payne reenacting the famous Hallway scene in The Matrix. There is also the 1998 German film Run Lola Run [16] in which the heroine has twenty minutes to pay off a gangster to save her boyfriends life. The movie shows the same sequence three times but with subtle differences in each version the outcome becomes different. The film Time Code and the television series 24 uses a split screen narrative by showing a number of different characters doing different things at the same moment in time. As ELSPA (Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association) point out in their 2003 White Paper The Cultural Life of Computer and Video games [17], would these things have occurred in the films without the influence of video games on their directors? Has the dynamics of video games spread onto the big screen? Evidently the culture impact of video games can be quite far reaching in the world of cinema. Besides these connections, in recent years there have been a number of games heavily borrowing from the cinematic feel of many cinematic masterpieces. Two prominent examples of this are the PC games Fahrenheit and Half Life 2. Fahrenheit is even listed under the Internet Movie Database [18], a site normally restricted to films and TV series. The game revolves around the character Lucas Kane who in a possessed trance kills a man in a New York diner. The player controls Lucas Kane while he attempts to work out what happened that fateful day and what greater forces controlled him to do so. Another story following the police investigation by a detective called Carla Valenti runs concurrently in a 24-esque style situation. The game is divided into a number of different chapters akin to a book but is extremely cinematic in the nature in which it is filmed. Obviously the game is not filmed but it is created by the developers in a manner in which it looks like a movie. The games end credits is similar to a movies by ending with a long list of credits such as director, script writer, story writer and voice actors, this is displayed at the end of the game with music by Theory of a Deadman in the background, just like at the end of a film. The game even has its own tagline (Guilt is a chilling feeling) and its advertising is identical to that of a movie with trailers and film posters such as the one

below:

The 2004 PC game Half Life 2 was also acclaimed for its similarities in architectural style to the 1920s film Metropolis. The architectural design and game mechanics behind the hit were so highly praised that a book, Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar - A Behind the Scenes Look: Prima's Official Insider's Guide, on the design of it was released shortly after the game. The Metal Gear Solid series of games on the Playstation One and Two were similar to Half Life with their starting sequences being identical to the start of an action film with a piece of action to draw the player in while the main credits rolled in front of the action.
Negative Elements of the Connections Between Games and Cinema
Some mainstream media critics would choose to define video games as a form of media that can not develop further than being only for entertainment purposes and certainly not as a tool that can be used creatively. The famous American film critic Roger Ebert being one of those. When reviewing the film version of Doom in October 2005 he wrote somewhat condescendingly about video games sparking a longer debate with readers of his. He stated: I believe books and films are better mediums, and better uses of my time. But how can I say that when I admit I am unfamiliar with video games? Because I have recently seen classic films by Fassbinder, Ozu, Herzog, Scorsese and Kurosawa, and have
recently read novels by Dickens, Cormac McCarthy, Bellow, Nabokov and Hugo, and if there were video games in the same league, someone somewhere who was familiar with the best work in all three mediums would have made a convincing argument in their defence.[19] In further articles he went onto explain that he is prepared to believe that video games can be elegant, subtle, sophisticated, challenging and visually wonderful but that the nature of the medium prevents it from moving beyond craftsmanship to the stature of art [20] Perhaps video gamess biggest problem is its relative youth meaning it has not had the time to fully mature into the level that the cinema has reached. It has taken over 100 years for films to reach such a revered level in many cases, although still being able to produce popcorn blockbuster films, so perhaps games need this long as well. However there are some examples of newer games becoming increasingly cinematic in their nature. Two key examples are that of Gears of War and Final Fantasy 12. From personal experience both games seem extremely cinematic in style, they both have long intro movies and attempt to outline the story as the game continues through the use of a number of detailed CGI cutscenes. Gears of War upon its release even had a run of trailers shown before films at cinemas, initially it would look to the viewer that a film was being advertised until they realised it was a game. With the increase in high definition technology and improvements in CGI technology; games, particularly with their use of cutscenes, can increasingly tell a story as well as be an interactive experience.

Techniques shared between Games and Film
Finally one of the key elements that games and film continue to share is their use of techniques to produce computer animated graphics to forward a story. Companies such as Lucas Arts and Industrial Light + Magic have begun to share their knowledge and their skills in CGI development for films, with game development. Many of the applications used for one are used for the other development showing a correlation between development techniques. [21] Bell discusses CGI techniques shared amongst cybercultures. [22] He mainly looks at how it has enhanced films but these techniques are able to improve games and their storylines. Perron [23] looks at the concept of interactive movies which are perhaps the nearest to a converging media between games and films. He looked at games such as The 7th Guest, early pioneers of the concept of interactive films, mainly thanks to the development of CD-ROM technology at the time. This game was primarily a puzzle game with the story created through the use of a number of video cutscenes interspersed with the puzzles, making it a strange mix of the two and not flowing very seamlessly. Many games have attempted similar things with none quite achieving either an entertaining film or an entertaining game. Even with such games as The X-Files Game, based on the hit TV show, they have failed to achieve huge success.

Conclusion

Perhaps the core elements behind games and films increasing converging is how both game developers and film producers work together. Much like how some films are deep and involving and others require little thought and are instantly forgettable, so are some games. There will always be a market for thoughtless games that simply require twitch reactions and no concept of studying the plot, while others attempt to create a deep plot requiring thought and emotion from the player so that they can fully interact with the experience that the game brings. The concept of similar CGI techniques being used within games as in films can aid the realism of a game in some respect but can never fully replace the experience of watching a film with real people in it. It is extremely possible that while films can never replace books, the same can be said of games and films. To gain a full experience of media, one needs all the different types to fully appreciate the knowledge they bring to us as a viewer, enabling us to experience things we would not ordinarily be able to encounter outside of films and games.
[1] Film History Before 1920. http://www.filmsite.org/pre20sintro.html

[online]

Available
[2] Cited in Rouse, R. 1998. Embrace your limitationscut-scenes in computer games. SIGGRAPH Comput. Graph. 32, 4 (Nov. 1998), 7-9. [3] Enter The Matrix for Playstation 2 Review. [online] Available from: http://uk.gamespot.com/ps2/action/enterthematrix/review.html?om_act=convert&om_ clk=gssummary&tag=summary;review [4] Ataris Enter The Matrix Premieres as No. 1 Selling Video Game. [online] Available from: http://corporate.infogrames.com/IESA/pressreleases_story.html?sid=391 [5] Lord of The Rings Games available [online] Available from: http://uk.gamespot.com/search.html?qs=lord%20of%20the%20rings&sub=g&stype=1 1&type=11 [6] TMNT Review [online] Available from: http://uk.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/tmntthemovie/review.html?q=tmnt [7] Juul, J. 2001. Games Telling http://www.gamestudies.org/0101/juul-gts/ Stories? [online], Available from:

[8] VIIth Heaven [online] http://uk.gamespot.com/features/6130799/index.html
[9] Game/Film on Blu-Ray, Co-Dev on PS4? [online] Available from: http://games.kikizo.com/news/200607/037.asp [10] X-box.com: Movies and TV on your X-Box [online] Available from: http://www.xbox.com/en-US/live/marketplace/moviestv/default.htm [11] Machinima.com [online] Available from: http://www.machinima.com/index.php [12] Red Vs Blue Episode 1 http://www.machinima.com/films.php?id=275 [13] Red Vs Blue DVDs http://www.roosterteethstore.com/dvds_all.html [14] A Few Good G-Men http://www.machinima.com/films.php?id=1154 [online] Available from:
[15] 300 Recreated in WoW [online] Available ninja.com/2007/04/17/300-recreated-in-world-of-warcraft/

http://loot-

[16] Lola Rennt (1998) [online] Available from: http://imdb.com/title/tt0130827/
[17]ELSPA White Paper [online]. Available from http://www.elspa.co.uk/about/pr/elspawhitepaper2.pdf [18] Fahrenheit (2005) [online] Available from: http://imdb.com/title/tt0476990/ [19] Rogerebert.com [online] Available from: http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=ANSWERMAN&date =20051113 [20] Ebert on Video Games http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/39732 [online] Available from:
[21] Gamasutra: Worlds Are Colliding: The Convergence of Films and Games [online] Available from: http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20051212/waugh_01.shtml [22] Bell, D. (2003) An Introduction to Cybercultures, p60-62, London: Routledge [23] Perron, B. (2003) From Gamers to Players and Gameplayers: The Example of Interactive Movies. In M.J.P Wolf & B. Perron (Eds.) The Video Game Theory Reader (pp. 87-103). London: Routledge.

Carr, Diane (2005) The Rules of the Game, the Burden of Narrative: Enter the Matrix for The Matrix Trilogy: Cyberpunk Reloaded ed. S. Gillis, London: Wallflower Press (www.wallflowerpress.co.uk)
THE RULES OF THE GAME, THE BURDEN OF NARRATIVE: ENTER THE MATRIX Diane Carr, IOE, University of London
Much of the commercial success that Enter the Matrix has enjoyed is the result of its relationship with the Matrix trilogy, rather than the quality of play it offers. i The game was released at the same time as The Matrix Reloaded (May 2003) and immediately became the fastest-selling title in its publishers history. ii The game is part of the Matrix franchise, but whatever its allegiances, it is a computer game. More specifically, it is an action adventure computer game. As is typical with such games, the action in Enter the Matrix centres on a characterised avatar (the games playable protagonist). The avatar is viewed primarily from behind as they pass through a series of spaces that are accessed conditionally, and in a particular order, while the player manages a variety of quantifiable resources (health, ammunition) and confronts various obstacles and adversaries. The avatar has a menu of moves run, climb, drive, throw, shoot, punch, etc. These potential actions are strategically triggered by the player in response to stimuli (acts, events, situations) in the game. The game is made up of levels sequential chapters, or episodes. Between levels are non-interactive digital animations that elaborate on the games narrative, relate background information, or set up the next mission for the player and their avatar. Enter the Matrix also incorporates short, filmed sequences at various points. These scenes are where the games close links to the Matrix series are most explicit, because they feature supporting actors and sets from The Matrix Reloaded. The central characters in Enter the Matrix are minor characters in The Matrix Reloaded. Similarly, the events portrayed in Enter the Matrix, play a supporting role to events in The Matrix Reloaded. This suggests that it is possible to trace differences in status between the game and the feature films, at a textual level.iii If these inequities are not acknowledged or accounted for, an analysis of the franchises enlistment of different media for narrative ends will remain incomplete. The borders between the game and the film trilogy are permeable, blurred by the inclusion of filmed sequences into the game, and by game like qualities in the feature films, as well as by the memories and associations carried by users as they move between these texts. Aylish Wood proposes that instead of thinking of The Matrix as a conventional film text that tells a narrative with a straightforward hero figure, perhaps it is more useful to think of The Matrix as equivalent to working through levels of a video game (2004: 127) and Sean Cubitt point to the referential structure as less the cyberspace of internet thanthat of computer games, constantly evoked in the use of mobile phones to guide protagonists through the mazes of the city (2004: 229). It is one thing, however, to recognise that these texts share ground, and another to assume that this sharing is unproblematic or that the territory in question is uncontested. ENTER THE MATRIX TELLS A STORY Questions about the apparently narrative qualities of computer games have led to lively debate within computer game studies over the past couple of years. Broadly speaking, theorists examining narrative in computer games have tended to fall into one of two camps. One set accepts it, more or less as a given, that computer games involve narrative to some degree, and thus they move straight on to asking how do games tell or generate stories? or how might
games evolve to tell more compelling stories? Examples include Pearces Towards a Game Theory of Game (2002), Janet Murrays Hamlet on the Holodeck (1997) and Henry Jenkins Game Design as Narrative Architecture (2002). A second set of analysts discusses narrative (or its absence) in computer games using the narrative theory of Genette (1980) or Chatman (1978). As a consequence, terms such as story, narrative and plot have distinct and precise meanings in their work. Examples would include Jesper Juul in Games Telling Stories? (2001) Markku Eskelinen in The Gaming Situation (2001) and Espen Aarseth in Cybertext. (1997).iv In all the above examples, the analysts have produced useful, thought provoking theory. However, because the terms at the centre of their analysis are differently defined, their various conclusions are difficult to reconcile. The aforementioned papers by Juul and Eskelinen use narrative theory to argue that computer games need to be understood as games (rather than as narratives, drama, or cinema). Elsewhere, Eskelinen has criticised Henry Jenkins, and Jenkins paper Game Design as Narrative Architecture, for failing to employ similarly specific terminology: Jenkins doesnt define the contested concepts (narratives, stories, and games) so central to his argumentation. Thats certainly an effective way of building a middle ground (or a periphery), but perhaps not the most convincing one (Eskelinen 2002:120). Computer games are not primarily about storytelling, yet narrative theory provides computer games theorists with an arsenal of wonderfully precise models with which to examine the organisation of perspective, event, time and action within a game-text. Yet, in the article concerned, Jenkins is not relying on narrative theory. He describes computer games as spaces in which stories are spun via the actions of the player, rather than told, and he is using a concept of story that is based on the work of Michel de Certeau (1984). According to de Certeau, stories are one of the ways through which users customise spaces, and while his use of the terms story and narrative does not match the definitions proposed by narrative theory, this does not limit the applicability of his concepts to the analysis of computer games and play. It is easy enough to establish that these various approaches hinge on different conceptualisations of story and narrative. What is more interesting is exploring how these notions might be productively aligned. Because of its declared narrative agenda, its various failings, and its rather servile relationship to a master or embedding text (a matrix text, in other words) Enter the Matrix is an excellent game through which to explore these ideas. GAMES AND NARRATIVE Perhaps the most important part of discussing the narrative aspects of any computer game is admitting that there are sizable differences between games and narrative. Any discussion of the similarities between games and narrative needs to incorporate recognition of their distinct properties. Jesper Juul defines games as follows: A game is a rule-based formal system with a variable and quantifiable outcome, where different outcomes are assigned different values, the player exerts effort in order to influence the outcome, the player feels attached to the outcome, and the consequences of the activity are optional and negotiable. (2003:35) Play is a self-directed activity undertaken for pleasure or diversion, and games involve measurable outcomes (scores, wins, losses) as well as, to some degree or other, an element of chance. The game has components (chess has its chess-pieces, for instance) of symbolic value that are manipulated by the player. Games have rules, and these rules might involve time (as when the players take turns) or govern the manner in which a component can be utilised - the ways that it can move through space, for example. A narrative, on the other hand, is the recountingof one or more real or fictitious events communicated by one, two or several (more or less overt) narrators to one, two or several (more or less overt) narratees (Prince, cited by Eskelinen, 2001). Narrative theorists themselves

argue about terms, but according to most, a narrative is made up of two parts: the story, and the discourse. The story is the intangible chain of source events, while the discourse is the expression of these events (the representation of the setting and the characters that enable these events). In simple terms, the story is the what in a narrative that is depicted, discourse the how. (Chatman 1978:19, emphasis in original). The narrative discourse is a communicative transmission within a text. It proceeds from a sending position, the implied author (the organising principal within the text), to a receiving position (the implied reader) via various conduits: narrators and narratees. (Chatman 1978:148-150). According to narrative theory, story-events are only available to us once they have been plotted in time and space and re-presented within the narrative discourse. Thus they have already happened. During play, on the other hand, events are improvised: the player instigates events in the present (Juul 2001). The player may have a hand in the duration of these events, and it may be the player who decides the perspective through which these events are depicted. In other words, rather than receiving a plotted discourse, the player has a hand in plotting events (Aarseth 1997 pp 111-114). In the process, the player moves from the sender end of Chatmans model of narrative as transmission, to the receiving end - from something like the implied author, to something like an implied reader, and back again. Additionally, it is the player who decides which, if any, of these events might be saved, and which played over. Narrative theory helps specify the ways in which computer games are not narrative and in the process, somewhat paradoxically, narrative theory proves its relevance to computer game studies. It is one thing to assert that Enter the Matrix tells a story, and another to explain how (or how successfully) this particular computer game manages to combine narrative with game-play. In fact, it is possible that Enter the Matrixs first job is to facilitate compelling play, and this aim is not helped by its commitment to storytelling. Enter the Matrix serves the story arc of The Matrix franchise and, as a result, the games ability to offer gamers compelling play is compromised. The games narrative commitments overshadow its game-ness. The game wraps its goals in narrative, and then pins these goals to events within The Matrix Reloaded. The outcome of this is that the player (in the guise of either avatar, Niobe or Ghost) is left picking up packages, running errands and making deliveries that will allow for big events in the feature film to be enacted by the high status stars. ORDER ON THE FREEWAY At one point in the game the player must dodge aggressive opponents while driving on a freeway, with the aim of getting the avatar Niobe and her vehicle close to a truck where Morpheus (in The Matrix Reloaded) is duelling with an agent.v When, after multiple attempts, the player manages to manoeuvre close enough, the mission is accomplished, play stops dead, and lustrous and spectacular images from the film take over from the blocky sterility of the gameworld. The pretence is that Morpheus acts are enabled by our (or at least Niobes) actions. Thus the player, if they persist long enough to accomplish their mission, triggers a set of events, the culmination of which is an event in the first narrative (the feature film). But Niobe will be there onscreen, on time, in The Matrix Reloaded, whether the player persists or not. The knockon effect of this is that the multiple events of play (the players various attempts at the level, their particular, personal responses to the games obstacles) shrink into insignificance.

The freeway scene Niobe is driving, Ghost is blasting cars out of the way. Morpheus is in the distance, on top of the truck. Screenshot from www.enterthematrixgame.com Enter The Matrix (2003) dev. Shiny Entertainment, publ. Atari Inc.
There are alternative ways to reference events across texts. The drop made by Jue, the heroine of Final Flight of the Osiris, from The Animatrix, is directly referred to by characters in both The Matrix Reloaded and Enter the Matrix. But in this case, the characters are not required to occupy the same points in time and space as Jue: the events depicted in Final Flight are referred to, rather than arrived at. Thus the animation is allowed to continue an independent existence. While there might well be discrepancies in status between this short animation and the feature films in terms of budget, medium, or the evaluative perceptions of audience, at the level of the textual, Final Flight enjoys a parallel life, rather than a supporting role. The owners of the Matrix franchise have an online multiplayer game in development.vi The Matrix Online will be set in the time that follows Matrix Revolutions, and thus it will refer to events in the Matrix series, without having to duplicate or serve them. Unlike events in Final Flight, or in the new online game, events in Enter the Matrix are bound to sequences in The Matrix Reloaded. The multiple and disposable in-game events acted out by the player (in the guise of Niobe or Ghost) cannot compete with the spectacular, expensive, singular events acted out by Neo and Morpheus. Narrative theorist Chatman has distinguished between discourse-time the time it takes to peruse the discourse and story-time, the duration of the purported events of the narrative (1978:62). The events in The Matrix Reloaded imported into Enter the Matrix are unique and singular, in comparison to the concertina style expansion of discourse-time that is a result of the repeated play events. Thus the narrative now of the filmed sequences is more coherent than the fractured, kaleidoscopic now of game-play. This difference need not necessarily signal a difference in stature. If the game world was as visually compelling as the films world, for instance, perhaps events in the game could hold their own despite the proximity of filmed events. There are precedents within narrative theory for the accounting of such hierarchies. Chatman touches on the question of the relative status of events within a discourse, when he discriminates between kernels (pivotal events) and satellites (elaborative yet non essential events). Narrative events have not only a logic of connection, but of logic of hierarchy. Some are more important than others (1978:53, emphasis in original). A minor plot event, or satellite can be deleted without disturbing the logic of the plot (1978:54). The four event strands present in Enter The Matrix (filmed and shared with the feature, filmed and unique to the game,

digitally animated, played) take up orbits of increasing distance from the core narrative, The Matrix Reloaded. The events that are furthest out (the most disposable) are those that come into being through game-play. These manipulated events might be repeated many times, played over, discarded, re-routed and saved as the player struggles to achieve a particular game goal by staying on the road, dodging agents, or out shooting the opposition. The upshot of the overlapping relationship between the feature film, and the game, is that the players skills, actions or strategies only have ramifications in the equivalent of a backwater. In Entertainment and Utopia Richard Dyer has written about the relationship between narrative and non-narrative sequences in film musicals. Dyer argues that the two modes, in combination, evoke and then respond to the yearnings of their audiences. Musicals are utopian, not because they necessarily feature perfect worlds, but because they present what utopia would feel like (1993:273). For instance, a depression era musical might involve a narrative of struggle, want and aspiration, and then counter this with non-narrative interludes, big numbers, where various glittering excesses (of legs, sequins, stairs, and energy) churn in an outpouring of decadence and plenty. Dyers analysis demonstrates that non-similar portions of a text can suggestively coexist, and it is arguable that some computer games have managed to incorporate narrative segments in a manner that compliments game-play. In such cases the games least variable aspects (including the pre-plotted narrative content) echo the most variable events (those that are choreographed by the player in real-time). The Tomb Raider series, for example, prioritises the penetration of new spaces: puzzles are solved, resources gained and monsters despatched, all so that Lara Croft can continue her journey. The players perspective is quite confined (the camera hovers in space behind Lara as she runs along). Space is rationed. This is balanced in the cut scenes, when real time animations reward the player by swinging the camera on great swooping arcs through the scenery. In other games, such as Baldurs Gate, temporal factors (turn taking, strategic pausing) are central to game-play, and these are complimented by narrative themes related to time: fate, doom, destiny. However, Enter the Matrix, in part because it answers to an external primary text, is unable to establish any such bond between its various strands. SAVING BANE Other problematic aspects of Enter The Matrix can be examined via the narrative theorist Genettes term focalization (1980 p 186, 189-211). Focalization involves the manner in which a narrative discourse positions or describes a narrators perspective - perspective in the sense of what they see, and what they know. An analysis of focalization involves asking who is the character whose point of view orients the narrative perspective (p.186, emphasis in original) and what, if any, are the limits of their vision or insight. At one point in Enter the Matrix the avatar character (and by extension, the player) is compelled to rescue Bane. According to Matrix Reloaded which, it is fair to expect, the player has seen, Bane is a psychotic traitor. The player cannot act on this information. On the contrary, the player is obliged to ignore what they know. As the imperative tone of this walkthrough (walkthroughs are game guides, written by players and distributed online) makes clear, the player who wants to progress through the game, must protect Bane. Once these cops are down, the real battle starts. You now have to protect Malachi, Bane, and Ballard on the centre walkway from the advancement of the SWAT teamRemember that if one of the rebels dies on the walkway, the mission starts over. (Sajban 2003). It is true that there are cases where a narrator within a conventional narrative form might know less that the implied reader. For instance, if the narrator is a nave child, the reader might be expected to recognise the adult intrigues as they filter through the childs innocent version of events. In a satisfying game however, information is central to strategy, and the player acts, exercises their prerogative, and

witnesses the ramifications and outcomes of their choices.vii Yet in Enter The Matrix, the player has information that they are not allowed to use. It would be wrong to assume that either the player or the avatar takes a position within the game-text that is equivalent to that of the narrator within a narrative discourse. A major reason for this is that within models of narrative, such as that espoused by Seymour Chatman in Story And Discourse (1978:151) the narrator is not in an orchestrating position: the narrator does not plot or generate events, as much as describe and enact events from within the narrative discourse (under the direction of the implied author). The player controls the avatar (within certain parameters), and thus they have the power to instigate events, and influence their duration: to plot, at least to a degree. For this reason, it is more probable that the avatar and the user provisionally combine to occupy something like a narratee/implied reader position (when they are the recipients of told events) and swing to something like a narrator/implied author position (when they instigate events). But what happens to this mobile bonding of player-withavatar, when the player (who has seen Matrix Reloaded, as well as the filmed scenes implicating Bane included in the game) is privy to information, of which the avatar must act blissfully unaware? How is the player supposed to feel about their mission to safeguard Bane? The crucial purpose of information in a game is that it will enable or arm the player. In this particular and peculiar case, the player must ignore what they know and proceed with the mission: the outcome of this is that the player is momentarily reduced from instigator to dupe, from strategist, to patsy. PLAY, STORIES, PRACTICE As the above suggests, the games narrative commitments compromise its playability. The game must work against itself, in order to serve the storytelling agenda of the master text. To examine the ramifications of this, of the games supporting role, we turn back to Henry Jenkins article, Game Design as Narrative Architecture. More precisely, we turn to the theory that strongly influences Jenkins use of the term spatial stories Michel de Certeaus The Practice of Everyday Life (1984). Throughout this book de Certeau describes a dynamic, generative partnership of non-equals. On the one hand are the sanctioning, legalising and delineating discourses of empowered institutions and producers. On the other, are the proliferating, ephemeral and transient practices of consumers. These practices, in fact, reposition consumption itself as a form of production. While this resistance involves a kind of empowerment, the practices are the symptom of an unequal distribution of power, and this inequity is not itself overturned by these practices. This notion is enlarged upon through various analogies. Legal discourses describe a rented apartment, for example, but the recouping and personalising practices of the inhabitant generate a form of conversion, when they furnish (it) with their acts and memories. Speakers make a language their own through personality, prerogative, idiosyncrasy or accent (i.e. through the act of speaking) while the grid of the modern city is remade through the uses and practices of pedestrians (1984:xxi). For de Certeau, stories are one of the ephemeral practices that convert plotted place, into dynamic space. This distinction between place and space is important. A place is an instantaneous configuration of positions. It implies an indication of stability whereas A space exists when one takes into consideration vectors of direction, velocities, and time variablesIn short, space is a practiced place. Thus the street geometrically defined by urban planning is transformed into a space by walkers. In the same way, an act of reading is the space produced by the practice of a particular place: a written text (1984:117 emphasis in original). Places are identified, whereas spaces are actualised. Place is associated with static and ordered clarity, and thus with a denial of temporality (because time infers motion, change, transience). Spaces involve trajectories,

tactics, motion and operations. In other words, space, in contrast to place, hosts dynamic change and temporality. Throughout de Certeaus analysis, power is associated with production, demarcation and the clarity achieved through reduction or distance, while spaces are equated with immediacy and improvisation, wit and resistance. Viewed from the top of a skyscraper, the grid of the city is an ordered plan: a place. From the perspective of the wandering pedestrians crossing paths at street level, the city is a practice: a space. Stories, suggests de Certeau, have the power to convert inert place, into the other: into space. Stories carry out a labour that constantly transforms places into spaces or spaces into places (1988:118). As this indicates, de Certeaus concept of story clearly differs from that of narrative theory; not least because he seems to use the terms story and narrative interchangeably. It should also be clear that it would be a mistake to discount his thesis because of this. It would also be a mistake to draft the two planes of narrative theory, straight onto the two kinds of phenomena detailed in de Certeaus essay to associate plot and discourse with production and demarcation, and story-events with ephemeral practices, even if it might be possible to argue that there are analogies between the concepts. What might be more productive, is imagining how de Certeaus concept of practice relates to game-play within a digital game, while his account of place, might more resemble those plotted elements within the game. As the player proceeds through a level of Enter The Matrix, they generate (via acts and practices) a trajectory. This trajectory through the games space is not a singular, unwavering arc. It will vary from player to player, and from play session to session. Events are repeated, or repeated only to be altered by chance. The repertoire of the avatars motions are played with, actions are duplicated, new potentials uncovered, and the players level of skill increases, an alteration that will be reflected in the increased speed, accuracy or agility of the protagonist. A trajectory is dropped and resumed and repeated until that leg of the journey is completed, the mission accomplished, or the goal achieved. At which point, having attained the state demanded by the game at that moment, another piece of storytelling is unleashed with an animated or filmed slice of narrative. Play is experiential, a chain of non-static events. Narrative segments, on the other hand, are non-interactive, relatively static and pre-ordered. What this suggests is that at least within the context of this computer game, play is closer to the resistant and ephemeral tactics of the consumer, while narrative parallels the plotted strategies of the producer. And what this in turn suggests is that by harnessing the in-game narrative to an extra-gamic cinematic narrative, the authority of the determining producer-definer is amplified, while the authority of the playful consumer-producer decreases in ratio. According to de Certeau, all consumption (whether it is of a narrative, a television show, a religion, or an apartment) involves creative reformulations by users. While this proviso should halt our descent into paranoid rhetoric, there is at least one other way that the producers of Enter The Matrix appear to have deliberately plotted for the recouping of practices commonly enjoyed informally by player-consumers. The game, in a nod to aspects of The Matrix, includes a mode called Hacking on its menu. The player is invited to hack in to discover just how deep the rabbit hole goes and thus unlock variation on levels, access different weapons, etc. In other words, the hacking mode, takes the place of cheats. Within gamer culture, generally speaking, cheats are discovered and gleefully swapped by players over the Internet or through friends. Cheats involve informal, social, consumer practices of creative resistance; they are a tactic for reclaiming the text, for rezoning a space within the text and seemingly outside of the apparent jurisdiction of its producers. By formalising the cheat, the suppliers of Enter the Matrix effectively re-colonise it, shifting it from an alternative practice, to a sanctioned procedure.

Conclusion Enter The Matrix contributes to a cross-media narrative franchise, but it does so only by downplaying its media specific potential: by making play events answerable to narrative events. Many action adventure computer games do this, to one degree or another, when they incorporate backstories and narrative qualities and storytelling inserts. The difference is that not only do the play events in Enter the Matrix culminate in static segments of plotted discourse, but that these segments are minor events played out by minor characters in the primary narrative: an expensive and spectacular feature film. Enter the Matrix is not an independent sibling-text, existing in an open relationship to the narrative of The Matrix Reloaded. On the contrary, the events recounted in Enter the Matrix, are bound to the main event of the first narrative: the primary, embedding narrative, the now from which other events are ordered. If different media contribute to a trans-media narrative, does it matter if the various contributing texts are granted equal status? If, as argued here, these texts do not enjoy equal status, what are the ramifications for the bodies onscreen in those texts? What does that say about the status of players, relative to readers or viewers? Game-play, as an ephemeral, proliferating and creative act, is suggestive of the resistant practices described by de Certeau. Perhaps, in part, this explains the necessity of containment: play acts are bracketed by the in-game narrative events. These in-game narrative events, in their turn, serve the master narrative. It is valid to ask these questions, but there are also various assumptions that should be avoided. In opposing gameplay to narration, for instance, this argument runs the risk of reductively misrepresenting narrative as closed and games as open. Consent is central to play, and playing Enter the Matrix involves negotiating with rules, invariables, controls and commands. The games environment, although it appears in 3D, actually funnels the player in quite specific directions. Only some doors will open. Only some rooms offer action. Only some actions are effective, and not all acts have outcomes. Action adventure computer games in general tend to feature fairly extensive plotting. The player, as well as manipulating events themselves, is confronted with narrative material (pre-set events that are related to the user) and characterisation. Usually the bulk of this narrative is slotted between levels as animations. Enter the Matrix is not unusual in this regard. But Enter the Matrix has real trouble reconciling its various parts. Even the relationship between the various real time segments is problematic: Some are digital animations. Others are on film. The overlap between the in-game events and the film features narrative events undermines any potential coherence between Enter the Matrixs different elements. In order to work as a whole, the mechanics, physics, limits and possibilities of the game-world, would need to establish a degree of productive tension with the non-interactive full motion (animated, or filmed) segments. The Matrix Reloaded overshadows Enter the Matrix. The proximity of the master narrative limits the sense that the players actions have demonstrable or alternative outcomes. This in turn limits any sense that the player is exercising their prerogative and making meaningful choices - prerequisites of compelling play experiences. The scale of the master narrative shrinks the players sphere of influence. In other words, the manner in which the Enter the Matrix has been drafted into the story arc of the Matrix cycle is detrimental to its ability to function as a game. It could be argued that by stretching the Matrix series over a range of texts and media, the producers have allowed for a variable and fertile array of spaces, which the consumer/audience can dip into, rework and explore. According to de Certeau consumers will dive through any text, appropriating and refitting it, whatever the strategic intentions of its producers. But we have not been focusing on the many different potential acts of users, nor has any attempt been made here to document the paths taken through the series by actual players. These paths can be transcribed, collated or recorded, but de Certeau warns that any such data might only refer to the absence of what has passed by. Surveys of routes miss what was: the

act itself of passing by. (1984:97) What has been under consideration in this chapter are the indications that Enter The Matrix is host to hierarchical patterns (of temporality, events and plot). Tracing these patterns is a form of textual autopsy, not a form of fortune telling: what these texts become in use, to their audiences, is another story.
This online review by Mugwum at Eurogamer who rated the game 4/10, is fairly representative of the reviews for Enter The Matrix: Let's be fair: Enter The Matrix has almost its fair share of good bits. The hacking mode is a bit of a laugh, the combat can be quite fun (and if you haven't played Max Payne you'll probably enjoy it even more), it's reasonably lengthy (more than the seven hours we've seen quoted elsewhere, especially if you play it on Normal and go for both campaigns), it has slow-motion sniping and some madcap running-away-from-agents rooftop chases, and it plugs some of the gaps in and poses more brain-teasing questions about a storyline that has most of the world hooked, but it is blighted on so many levels by the blundering stupidity of its malformed stillborn design that recommending it is beyond us. The blue pill never looked so tasty. Online at <http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=52134> accessed May 2004 ii Enter The Matrix was developed by Shiny Entertainment, and published by Atari. Players and gaming magazines attribute some of the games rough edges to its being rushed to meet this simultaneous release date. I think the production was rushed and because of this there were a couple bugs left (Justin Lee, 18.7.03) Or I like the matrix. I like everything about it except this game. You can tell this game was rushed to the shelves. There's glitches everywhere (sic) (Kyle, 11.7.03). These player reviews are from www.videogamereview.com (Thanks to Andrew Burn for bringing this site to my attention). The gaming press made similar statements: No doubt some of these technical shortcomings are down to the game having been rushed out in time for the films May 15 US release (though it was in development for three years). (It shows) signs of having been put together at the last minute. (Edge issue 125 p 95) iii Looking at differences in status between the media (games and films) would be a separate question. Also it should be noted that I am not looking at the positive values or status attributed by fans of the Matrix to the game precisely because of its links to the franchise. I am not looking at the status of the Wachowski brothers as authors, what their involvement with the game means to their fans, or to the games promoters. Nor am I analysing relationships between original and subsequent texts. These are all valid questions, but they cannot be adequately addressed in a single chapter. iv Within computer games studies circles, this debate has been differently framed, and dubbed narratologists vs. ludologists, see Frasca (2003). For more on computer games and literary theory see Kcklich (2003) v Players go through the game either as Niobe, or Ghost (or one, then the other). For a complete walkthrough of the game, see http://faqs.ign.com/articles/403/403763p1.html Enter The Matrix FAQ/Walkthrough by Irish (Matt Sajban) accessed May 2004. Interviews, trailers and screenshots are available at the games official website www.enterthematrix.com vi see http://thematrixonline.warnerbros.com). The online game is still in development at the time of writing, and so it does not feature in this analysis, and as The Matrix Online will be an online game (where users play in a shared world) it will significantly differ from Enter The Matrix. vii In the game design and analysis manual Rules of Play, Salen and Zimmerman (2004) write that understanding choice in a game can be extremely useful in diagnosing games design problems. If your game is failing to deliver meaningful play, it is probably because there is a breakdown somewhere in the action > outcome chain. (2004:65) Salen and Zimmerman point out that for the game to work, the players choices and actions should result in meaningful outcomes and that the player needs to receive clear indications that their actions have ramifications (2004:66)

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LUDOGRAPHY

Baldurs Gate (1998) Developer BioWare Corp., Publisher Black Isle Studios Enter The Matrix (2003) PlayStation 2 version, Developer Shiny Entertainment Inc., Publisher Atari Inc. Max Payne (2001) Developer Rockstar Canada, Publisher Rockstar Games Tomb Raider (1996) Core Design Ltd., Publisher Eidos Interactive