Given the widespread popularity of game consoles such as the Xbox 360, PlayStation and Wii, it comes as no surprise that their corresponding video games have made their way into mainstream culture ““ particularly with the college population itself.
For the student organization LUDUS, however, video games are more than just a way to pass a lazy afternoon.
LUDUS, a video game-theorizing organization created by graduate students in the School of Theater, Film and Television at UCLA, seeks to explore the fun side of gaming and also looks at it from an academic perspective.
“Ludus,” a Latin-based term associated with “game” or “play,” refers to a series of academic conversations about video game theory, including ones pertaining to the close ties it has with the older but just as popular medium of film.
Kristy Norindr is a first-year graduate student in the film, television and digital media department and co-president of LUDUS.
“Studying film and television, there are a lot of people who also play video games and there are a lot of new console games that are really dependent on film-based elements,” she said. “It just seemed like a natural crossover for a lot of the people in my department to talk about (video games) and start studying (them) on our own, but also in combination with some of the classes that are offered by the film department.”
Although video games have been around for a much shorter period of time than movies, the two mediums are similar both in terms of their level of popularity as well as their potential academic implications.
“I think video games might be what films used to be ““ a guilty pleasure. … Games are a part of people’s lives like movies are a part of people’s lives,” Norindr said. “Video games don’t necessarily have the same academic cache, but they should.”
As video games become more and more technologically advanced, their sophisticated narrative elements often utilize the same sophisticated methods that are used to produce films.
Anyone who has played shooter games such as “Halo” or “Grand Theft Auto” has already been exposed to this increasingly noticeable crossover between video games and film.
“Some of the biggest elements that come into video games through films are through cut scenes,” Norindr said. “Within the narrative of a first-person shooter, there will be a cut scene, and it seems like the people who are producing (them) strictly come from visual formats, like television or film. They indulge in formal rules that filmmakers use, because they are filmmakers. Where it differs is in the (notion) of play, where people who are playing video games are interacting within the space ““ either with each other, or with the program and environment that’s already set up for them.”
Part of the intrigue present in the meshing of the two mediums comes from the ever-growing presence of video game consoles, especially those that have come out in the last three or four years.
“People who owned the PlayStation 3 really lucked out because here not only was your game system, but you could (use it to) watch movies in the highest possible quality,” Norindr said about the console, which is also able to play Blu-ray films.
Although UCLA currently does not have a gaming department, many LUDUS members are taking classes through the School of Theater, Film and Television that deal with different aspects of video games, including their design as well as the theories behind their production.
But their gaming research and interest is by no means exclusive. The group is featuring a speaker and film series that will bring games and films to UCLA.
The series begins today with A Tag-Team Game Industry Talk featuring Dooma Wendschuh from Sekretagent Productions and John Ballantyne from Electronic Arts, two industry leaders in the video game business who will discuss the creative and technical processes behind the making of video games.
Sekretagent Productions has produced several successful video games including “Army of Two” in 2008 and “Prince of Persia: the Two Thrones” in 2005.
The talk will include an introduction to the video game business followed by tips on how to find work in the game industry and how to get your own game made. Both Wendschuh and Ballantyne will be available after the presentation for a question-and-answer session.
LUDUS will also be screening several game-related films in the weeks to come, which are particularly relevant as more video games are being adapted to the big screen. The film screenings shown at Melnitz Hall will encompass mainstream films like “Resident Evil: Degeneration” as well as more obscure ones such as Lars von Trier’s “The Boss of it All.”
The game-to-movie crossover is not something new, but audiences have different opinions on how to approach it.
“I think that independent films might be a more interesting space or venue to see (this) happen,” Norindr said. “(Whereas) the big video games and big films ride on money and special effects, I don’t think that they’re intrinsically meshed to go together. I feel like it would be interesting to have a little bit more abstraction because games can be really abstract, and independent films are more likely to be abstract and accepted.”