Ancient Culture and Philosophy #9: A Response to Jean Baudrillard’s Image theory and the Rise of Video Games
-For the Uncensored!
(image of Jean Baudrillard, a modern French philosopher born in the 20th century, as he has written many works of philosophy covering marxism all the way to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He can be found on all local retailers, and independent bookstores. Image source: https://artreview.com/april-2015-great-critics-baudrillard/)
(you are reading it right, this is an Ancient Culture article, but also, it’s expanding off into more modern thoughts and principles that can be discussed. I will be discussing ancient culture, but also take on modern philosophy as well. Thanks, and enjoy the article.)
Contrary to popular opinion, philosophy is a key structure of human society. It’s how we learn to base off functional systems in society to what we think and how we perceive the world. Perceiving the world means learning what and how we need to adapt in order to function in order to be accepted. Any true philosopher gives a fuck all about society’s needs focusing on the individual. But is there too much of a centered reality and the way Simulacra is dead weight now that most movies feature CGI to represent history or through video games that present the function of reality lost in images.
While Baudrillard saw movies as a way to alter reality, video games allow the player to create the narrative he would like in order to find the desired outcome, whether it’s a good or bad ending. Video games do allow more control over the narrative than film does, which is what might irk many cinema files. If the wisdom of the image is gone, then the video game is what the player can do with the image. Mods are the revolutionary mold that would make the image into the hands of the digital creator. Baudrillard wouldn’t have thought that with video games, most creators can take an image and now expand that reality that simulation would then consider in his three rules.
Society wants to create a lasting digital impression of what the imagination can do. There are moments in video games that often feel very cinematic, but the cinema means having no control over what is on the screen.
Video games means giving into full creative authority of helping guide the player to your vision. There are many who play video games in order to have that sense of authority that many philosophers would entail in the books that prevent the beatification of an image that would just move in one direction.
Video games, especially open world games, have the ability to give the player the chance to move the character through the world, allowing them to follow whatever mission they think is best for there playthrough. It’s hard to pretend that Baudrillard was thinking in such normal terms as films, for him, dominated the imagination in the 19th and 20th century. It made sense that today, most philosophers are now video game designers.
It’s hard to imagine that the coding they learn is not without some merit of philosophical principle. It’s not like the imagination to want to not adapt to the ever evolving world. In Baudrillards article “ Simulacra and Simulation,” there are three orders, “Simulacra that are natural, naturalist, founded on the image, on imitation and counterfeit, that are harmonious, optimistic, and aim for the restitution or the ideal institution of nature made in God’s image;” while the second are “productive, productivist, founded on energy, force, its materialization by the machine and in the whole system of production” which focuses on globalization and expansion.
And the third is “simulacra of simulation, founded on information, the model, the cybernetic game—total operationality, hyperreality, aim of total control.” (Baudrillard, Jean. Simulacra and Simulation. p. 121).
What is amazing about video games that it exists on production and information and code, so much of Baudrillards philosophy for the image becomes the brain child of Baudrillard, Philip K. Dick, and many creators, in general. In video games, itself.
Baudrillards visions is based out of the world of Philip K. Dick, and mentions him quite frequently when it comes to his critique of Science Fiction. Considering that Science Fiction exploded in the culture at large since Baudrillards critique in Simulacra and Simulation in 1981, which took place during video games rise. This was before Nintendo’s popularity took place in America.
What pertains in video games is that many topics can take center stage, but the primary influence of video games is based entirely in science fiction. Galaga, a popular arcade game, where you push the ship left and right and shoot every ship that attacks you with a big circular arcade button. Through the screen, the ship avoids any who break through your field of vision, and disappear behind you. This is allowing the central image and pushing the ship, with joysticks. While there is no narrative in Galaga, which then later adapted with screen cards detailing the narrative, is a prohibited vision. Open world games, like Stalker, takes the premise of Roadside Picnic and its film adaptation Stalker, into a world where an evolving image is expanding through a digital playground.
A movie alone can’t offer a playground for people to live in unless it is a television series. Unless a television series can develop side characters to there maximum potential, it’s unlike a series to be as immersive as video games. Television is now just a husk for the world of the Internet to take its place. The image has seen a lot of changes. With the rise of video games, it can expand the image beyond its natural vision. One thing is fundamental. The error of only have one image to become brainwashed by is not the only option people have.
In the world of the image, the twentieth century produced more options for entertainment than any time. But with the rise of political correctness, it’s become a disservice to video games to remain purely entertainment. The option of entertainment becomes a singular service that people do not see as there job to create. If the unlikely misery behind having no image to control can create a new burst of creativity is why so many independent developers are forming there own image.
As long as you have your own drive to create your own image, you have the ability to create a vision that someone can get lost in. Academics always saw art as there own place within society that the masses could never do. With the help of Amazon becoming a game studio, Luna, that lets you play video games, it’s no end to what video games can do. They have come along way from the Atari, and they have created images ever since for many video game players since there inception.
What the future of the image holds is what video games are offering. A solid open or short experience that can help create long memories for the player and the creator. What is definite is the will of the image that seeks to move through a world that is getting less real but still offers a hyperreality that Baudrillard would be proud to call the heir to cinema and carrying on the image of hyperreality and the digital world video games now occupy the brave new world of the 21st century.
-Louis Bruno is the author of more than 15 books, including, The Michael Project, The Michael Project: Book 2: The Lost Children of Eve, Thy Kingdom Come, The Disintegrating Bloodline, Apocalypse Soldier, Hierarchy of Dwindling Sheep. His books can be found on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Lulu. He can be found on Gab, https://gab.com/thereallouistbruno, Minds https://www.minds.com/lbruno8063/. Instagram @lbrruno8063 and @louisbrunoofficialbook. Our Freedom Book https://www.ourfreedombook.com/thereallouistbruno17. He has written for the Intellectual Conservative and Ephemere. Also, he writes on https://louisbruno.substack.com, where you can support him directly, and where he will post one article sporadically (the bulk of his work will appear on substack officially). His next series, City of Sand is out now: https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/louis-bruno/city-of-sand/hardcover/product-rke9jz.html?page=1&pageSize=4. Also, if you can’t subscribe so that you can get members only content, please be sure to share the articles, as well. Every little bit helps. Thanks for reading.