Semiotics is the science that studies the production of meaning, and is excellent for studying and analyzing video games.
The academic study of video games analyzes the gaming industry as if it were an incomprehensible phenomenon.
Or at least, most of the scientific approaches I have seen to games have been like that. As if it were a social phenomenon that leads humanity to ruin or something like that.
There has been no shortage of analysis about the almost extinct cyber-cafes or studies of Counter Strike and other games as an apology for violence. Ridiculous, if you ask me.
On this occasion, we won’t do any of that; here we will analyze video games as true cultural products, and I promise I will try not to use very academic language so as not to bore you.
Semiotics
First, let me explain briefly what Semiotics, or Semiology, is, for those of you who do not know what this discipline is all about.
Very broadly speaking, Semiotics is the science that studies signs and their presence in communication and society. Its object of study is semiosis, that is, the production of signs. Both terms come from the Greek, semeio, which means “sign”.
Basically, it studies the symbolic signs that we find in discourses, texts, images, etc. For example, through Semiotics we can analyze advertising patterns (graphic, radio, audiovisual or multimedia), or we can analyze a book, its plot and structure.
And what is a sign? It is an object that “means something to someone”, and therefore carries a “meaning”. That is, it has meaning for someone, either for one reason or another.
The videogames
There is no need for me to explain what video games are. However, we can quickly deduce from the previous paragraphs that games can be analyzed from a semiotic point of view.
This is very simple: a video game is composed of a large number of signs that acquire meaning only through interaction with users or players. And in turn, each game is a sign, since it acquires different meanings according to who experiences it.
When playing or analyzing video games, I will not find the same meaning as my partner or my friends. I will give as an example the famous Age of Empires (AoE), both the first and the second one and its expansions.
For some people, AoE is just a strategy game, in which you build cities, raise armies, and fight with other players. For others, it’s an excellent exercise in medieval and ancient tactics and strategy. For me, Age of Empires is all that and more: it is a history lesson. And in that context, it takes on a much more valuable meaning.
Analyzing Signs in Games
The thesis with which I obtained my degree in Social Communication is entitled “Videogames and Communication: Semiotic Study of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Bioshock”. It consists of a comparative analysis between these two video games, and was written together with my friend and colleague Rodrigo Gusman.
I would like to highlight the two main hypotheses we are working with:
- Video games can be thought of as a means of communication
- Video games include values
Both approaches are based on the fact that games are essentially productions of meaning emitted by an enunciator, with the purpose of entertaining but, at the same time, of communicating a message.
This is not something invented, nor is it something never seen before: we all know by now that fiction can hide teachings or metaphors of the highest order. Otherwise, why do fables have a moral?
Let’s add the fundamental characteristic of video games: interactivity. In my opinion, this makes them powerful teaching and/or training tools.
Author Mariano Zelcer defines games as “texts made to be used”, that is, they depend on our intervention so that the story can unfold.
Each video game is, in itself, a story, that is, it presents “a succession of goals and stages and an objective to be achieved” (definition also established by Zelcer). And each goal and objective that is reached depends directly on the user’s interaction.
Our approach
Here I want to emphasize that there is something interesting and very important to rescue: many video games are works with a lot of production behind them, and each of its countless elements can be analyzed from hundreds of disciplines. We can even analyze the simplest video games!
In our case, with Rodrigo we chose Semiotics because it was the one we found most interesting (and most appropriate for our thesis work, of course).
What I am trying to say is: I invite each and every one of you to think of video games not as a simple leisure tool, but as a complex system of signs.
And, if you begin to take them separately and analyze them closely, you will see issues of great depth reflected in them.
Value judgments, position-taking, criticism, praise, tributes, messages, all this and more they hide, and it is our interaction with them that is the key to discovering it.
What do you think of this, leave your comments with what this note makes you think!