In 1995, one of the greatest games of all time debuted on the SNES. A beautiful storyline surrounding a time traveling main character, a brand new hybrid action adventure-RPG game engine, coupled with beautiful state of the art graphics for its time, Chrono Trigger quickly gained a massive fan base in Japan and subsequently the US. It spurned a sequel for the Playstation in 1999, and a massive online community that still discusses, plays, and makes new content based on the old SNES game.
The team that designed the original game was called the Dream Team. Harnessing five of the best in their field, Chrono Trigger was what some could call a super project. The team consisted of renowned producer Hironobu Sakaguchi along with famed video game composer Nobuo Uematsu, as well as two team members of the already popular Dragon Quest team, Yuuji Horii and Akira Toriyama.
For years, people have talked about remaking this classic game with today's new technology. There have been no official plans to remake the game for a new generation. Having built up such a loyal fan base, it is only natural that those fans would make new content based on the old game. Cue, Chrono Resurrection, a fan based non-profit remake of the original game. They had it in their mind to remake the entire game into 3D for the benefit of the fan community. They released this video:
This was the last video that they ever released, as Square Enix (makers of Chrono Trigger), sent them a cease and desist order. The project was shut down and all of the work that had been completed for this project was done for nothing more than a good looking video. In the end, the big media corporation had the final say, and the copyright stood.
This is a good example of how all productions of texts have political aspects to them. Square-Enix could have chosen to not sue them, hoping that the fan project would generate good publicity for their newly merged company (Squaresoft and Enix merged on April 1st, 2003). Instead they chose to protect their intellectual property rights of Chrono Trigger and shut down the project. This is an example of how copyright law is used and also how fans can sometimes do illegal things without knowing it. Copyright is definitely a very sticky issue.
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Faceporn
Many of you may be aware of a little cultural phenomenon. This little phenomenon is a very good tool that allows us to communicate with and keep in touch with friends far away. It allows us to affilitate with each other in "groups" and to share our lives with each other through posting pictures and profiles that tell people more about us. This same good phenomenon can also be corrupted, just like anything else in this world, and become something bad, something pornographic.
This "little cultural" phenomenon that I speak of is of course:
Facebook!
Let me clarify what I just said. I am not saying that Facebook is bad. Facebook can be a very good thing, (as I evidenced above), but taken in the wrong context, it can become perverted, self centered, and a drug/ something that we do to get out "fix". When it comes to this point, Facebook use becomes pornographic.
The reality is that porn as we know it, is not really pornography. The way that we view that porn can make it pornography. Pornography is a perversion of a very good thing. In terms of sex, porn takes something that is, in the words of Andrew Rudd, "very emotional, relational, awkward, and messy" and removes all of those things leaving us with an empty shell that we can use to "get off".
So really, porn is anything that divorces us from the need for real relationships and allows us to distance ourselves from them. At the same time, it is an external abberation that allows us to "get our jollies off". It takes the place of a good urge that has been instilled in us by our creator and replaces it with a lonely and empy, but yet strangely pleasurable shell of that good thing.
Facebook can become porn in these ways:
1. When it is used suppress boredom- I know that I have been guilty of this as have many people. We are bored. So we get on Facebook. And then we stay on Facebook, for hours, and hours, and hours, and hours, and . . . I think you get the point. Our whole purpose of being on Facebook is not to socially connect with other human beings, it is to suppress our boredom. Just like people can turn to drugs, sex/pornography, alcohol, so also people can turn to Facebook to suppress boredom and escape reality. We can use Facebook to numb the ebbing of time and the consequences therfore of boredom.
2. When it is used as our only social context for relationships- We all know them. Our Facebook friends. The people who will talk back and forth to you on your wall, will reply to your notes, comment on your pictures, but never even say "hi" to you or give you the time of day in real life. When we write on someone's walls without intention of really caring about that person or finding out how they are and investing in their life, we're using it as a pornographic tool. We don't care about that person, we care that we made the effort and it makes us feel good. We're using it to elevate ourselves to elitism. It's like those people who get into social activism to "help people" but are really doing it as a feel good fix.
3. When we use it to assert our supremacy- I know that I have done this before as have many others. We write a note in order to "get out opinion out there". When someone comments back to us with a different view, we feel the need to "correct them." We may even pretend that their opinion changes ours, and feign the attitude that we care. This attitude of elitism is a pornographic use of Facebook. While we wouldn't dare assert our arrogance in this way in a normal cultural setting, Facebook gives us the perfect place. Safe, and divorced from the consequences of relationship. This is the same reason that a lot of people write books. To prove that they're right and that other people are wrong. (*cough* John Macarthur *cough*) When we use a tool to escape the consequences, the messiness, the awkwardness of dialogue in relationships, our use of that tool becomes pornographic.
I am not saying that there is even a limit as to how much people should use Facebook. That line can and should be drawn by the individual and not by a community of faith. I am saying however that we should evaluate our use of not just Facebook, but all texts, to see if we are using them pornographically. Are we using them in place of our relationships with others and with God? Is our use of these tools spurned out of a longing, but distancing from God? If so, we should try to cut out our pornographic use of texts and attempt to get back to right uses of these texts and to our relationships to God and to others.
This "little cultural" phenomenon that I speak of is of course:
Facebook!
Let me clarify what I just said. I am not saying that Facebook is bad. Facebook can be a very good thing, (as I evidenced above), but taken in the wrong context, it can become perverted, self centered, and a drug/ something that we do to get out "fix". When it comes to this point, Facebook use becomes pornographic.
The reality is that porn as we know it, is not really pornography. The way that we view that porn can make it pornography. Pornography is a perversion of a very good thing. In terms of sex, porn takes something that is, in the words of Andrew Rudd, "very emotional, relational, awkward, and messy" and removes all of those things leaving us with an empty shell that we can use to "get off".
So really, porn is anything that divorces us from the need for real relationships and allows us to distance ourselves from them. At the same time, it is an external abberation that allows us to "get our jollies off". It takes the place of a good urge that has been instilled in us by our creator and replaces it with a lonely and empy, but yet strangely pleasurable shell of that good thing.
Facebook can become porn in these ways:
1. When it is used suppress boredom- I know that I have been guilty of this as have many people. We are bored. So we get on Facebook. And then we stay on Facebook, for hours, and hours, and hours, and hours, and . . . I think you get the point. Our whole purpose of being on Facebook is not to socially connect with other human beings, it is to suppress our boredom. Just like people can turn to drugs, sex/pornography, alcohol, so also people can turn to Facebook to suppress boredom and escape reality. We can use Facebook to numb the ebbing of time and the consequences therfore of boredom.
2. When it is used as our only social context for relationships- We all know them. Our Facebook friends. The people who will talk back and forth to you on your wall, will reply to your notes, comment on your pictures, but never even say "hi" to you or give you the time of day in real life. When we write on someone's walls without intention of really caring about that person or finding out how they are and investing in their life, we're using it as a pornographic tool. We don't care about that person, we care that we made the effort and it makes us feel good. We're using it to elevate ourselves to elitism. It's like those people who get into social activism to "help people" but are really doing it as a feel good fix.
3. When we use it to assert our supremacy- I know that I have done this before as have many others. We write a note in order to "get out opinion out there". When someone comments back to us with a different view, we feel the need to "correct them." We may even pretend that their opinion changes ours, and feign the attitude that we care. This attitude of elitism is a pornographic use of Facebook. While we wouldn't dare assert our arrogance in this way in a normal cultural setting, Facebook gives us the perfect place. Safe, and divorced from the consequences of relationship. This is the same reason that a lot of people write books. To prove that they're right and that other people are wrong. (*cough* John Macarthur *cough*) When we use a tool to escape the consequences, the messiness, the awkwardness of dialogue in relationships, our use of that tool becomes pornographic.
I am not saying that there is even a limit as to how much people should use Facebook. That line can and should be drawn by the individual and not by a community of faith. I am saying however that we should evaluate our use of not just Facebook, but all texts, to see if we are using them pornographically. Are we using them in place of our relationships with others and with God? Is our use of these tools spurned out of a longing, but distancing from God? If so, we should try to cut out our pornographic use of texts and attempt to get back to right uses of these texts and to our relationships to God and to others.
Monday, November 12, 2007
Cosplay
You may see these people and think of them as strange. They're avid Japanese fans of one of my favorite games of all time, Final Fantasy. They are in what the Japanese call cosplay.
In Japan video games are HUGE. They are a lot more than mindless delusions to people in that culture, they are actually an intregal part of their society. Fans can often be found, just like some Star Trek fans, dressing up in authentic garb of their favorite characters. They go to conventions. They act out favorite scenes. It is very interesting to watch actually.
Some may view fandom as a lonely diversion to escape reality, or even as idolatry. I would argue however that fandom is actually very healthy because it fosters community and friendship through a common bond. Cosplay events foster playfullness long lost in Japanese adults and seek to connect people with one another; people who would have otherwise never talked to each other. And in a culture with the highest suicide/depression rate in the world (Japan) I hardly think that is such a bad thing. That's just my opinion though. . .
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Long Live Family Guy
One of my favorite media texts (ie TV shows) is the oh-so-beloved-and-witty Family Guy. This show is a beautiful synthesis of a classic cartoon and an adult comedy. Family Guy is a rare cartoon genre program that finds itself able to comment on pop culture using a medium of sarcastic comedy. It seems to connect beautifully with it's fan though its use of current topics from pop culture and the news.
Family Guy is also a perfect example of how different people view different things in different ways. Take, for instance, this clip:
An artist/critic might see this clip and think to him/herself: "Hmm. . . while this may not be very tasteful to some in the public, I can see how it is able to artistically represent a real situation that many lonely people actually experience. It connects well with the culture."
The fan will think either: "I don't find this tasteful. I'm going to change the channel," or "Haha! That is hilarious!"
The producer will be thinking: "If we air this segment, we might lose revenue because many people might find this offensive. We should probably stick to the safe side of the street and ask the writers to cut it."
Family Guy is also a perfect example of how different people view different things in different ways. Take, for instance, this clip:
An artist/critic might see this clip and think to him/herself: "Hmm. . . while this may not be very tasteful to some in the public, I can see how it is able to artistically represent a real situation that many lonely people actually experience. It connects well with the culture."
The fan will think either: "I don't find this tasteful. I'm going to change the channel," or "Haha! That is hilarious!"
The producer will be thinking: "If we air this segment, we might lose revenue because many people might find this offensive. We should probably stick to the safe side of the street and ask the writers to cut it."
Politics of Production
I found this video to be very informative in relation to the crisis current set before us. For those of you who watched the movie and didn't have a clue what the people in it were talking about, here's a heads up. Right now, there is a strike going on that has been orchestrated by the Writer's Guild of America. This event is HUGE. Virtually all of the major film and television industryis affected, as are you, the consumer of that television and films.With the writers for favorite shows like Heroes, Lost, Family Guy, NCIS, CSI: Miami, 24, Stargate Atlantis, The Big Bang Theory, and virtually every show and movie on air stalled in production this could have major implications for society as a whole.
People will be out of many jobs for possibly a very long period of time.
The economy of the nation's second largest city, Los Angeles (which relies on the entertainment industry to fuel it's growth and tax revenue) is in major trouble if the strike lasts much longer.
Popular programming may never come back on air.
Reality TV, which requires no writers will most likely replace many television shows.
The internet will most likely grow in popularity for meeting the entertainment needs of consumers.
This situation is a perfect example of the politics of production. Often we, as consumers, take for granted all of the people that put their time and effort into a show before it ever reaches us. Some statistics that I found were especially interesting about this whole crisis:
On average, for a show with 14-15 writers there will be anywhere between 120 and 200 people below them including everything from cameramen, to makeup, to dressing room attendants. These people are now out of a job.
While there is a tendency to believe that everyone in Hollywood is rich, that is far from the truth. Because of political reasons, a majority of the people working on an average Hollywood set are low-middle income earners who are now out of a job and not able to provide for their families.
Writers, who are essentially the ones who create the show and script all of the lines and such, only receive 4 cents on every average DVD cost, which is near 22 dollars. That means that on average, on every DVD that is sold, the writers will only receive 4 cents while the studio profits 2198 cents for a DVD that costs 60 cents to produce. They are asking for 8 cents.
Writers currently get a grand total of 0 cents whenever their shows are played online (while networks make major dollars from ad sales.
In short, while we take our entertainment for granted, consuming endless ammounts of it, there are a lot of politics involved; politics that can get very very messy at times. A scary reality is that while we see celebrities and almost anyone who works in Hollywood as giant, rich, and almost inhuman, Hollywood is made up of people, who have very real jobs, families, houses, cars, and lives. Because of the politics of production in the movie/TV industry, potentially hundreds of people will be out of jobs, lost families, cars, houses, and lives. This is the reality of Hollywood. Chew on that CNN. . .
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