An analysis of some Red Dead Machinima

An analysis of- Red Dead Redemption Machinima/Movie "Dastardly"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8OMqil7Kqg

Bernard Peron and Mark Wolf insist that those studying videogames should consider ‘how artistic decisions are shaped by technological compromises.’ Unlike the successful Red vs. Blue machinima, Red Dead Redemption characters have no futuristic battle-masks to cover their faces. Uploader and creator ‘Foolish Pedro’ therefore faced a problem. Dialogue in his short film couldn't work because the avatars mouth would not move as they spoke. In the early days of videogames, creators faced a level technological playing field leading to innovative use of software becoming the main form of competition. Similarly, machinima producers all have access to pre-made video games that they cannot easily alter. Faced with the same canvas, the way machinima artists manipulate and overcome limitations is what makes the various films unique and interesting. ‘Foolish Pedro’ cleverly adopted a silent film style to overcome the dialogue issue. The dialogue comes up in captions over a black background. Ironically films of this era used this technique to overcome the problem of non-synchronous sound. This technique works well due to the setting of the game and Pedro parodies the style further by adding in olden day piano music, an old fashioned black and white projector effect and a generic damsel in distress narrative. However, Pedro plays with the oft told damsel in distress train story by adding in a videogame twist. A key difference between videogames and film is that players have capacity to act. They do not merely passively watch but have agency. When playing Red Dead, there is nothing to stop users from hogtying a lady and throwing her on a train track. No hero will appear to stop us as they do in films. Pedro’s short film reflects on this with its overly simplistic plot. The main character has no reason for his actions and he wins by killing the girl because the protagonist doesn't get there in time. This is something that does not happen in traditional narrative structures. This raises issues of the moral problems involved with videogames. You can become a bad guy and nothing can stop you from pointless acts of extreme violence. However, as Constance Steinkuehler argues, ‘the game that’s actually played by participants is not the game that designers originally had in mind.’ Videogame creators may argue that they cannot be blamed for encouraging grotesque behaviour (with could lead to potentially dangerous social issues) because they did not anticipate such an act to be carried out by the player or are at least not in control of the players actions. Yet this is clearly not the case in Red Dead. At the end of the short film, the title Dastardly is revealed to be the name of a gaming achievement. Not only did the creators predict the murder of a bystander by train, they encouraged it in their achievement guides. The game therefore encourages players to kill innocent people in the most creative ways they can think of. There might be a problem there..

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Lloyd Thomason (2691650)
This week I contributed to the 'Gaming as a Sport?' thread