Zachary Essey
The Sweet, The Sour and The Bitter
Appetiser
This week, I am reflecting on an article by Zoyander Street of Critical-Distance and on quite the topic too. In fact thinking about it makes me quite hungry… Looking around to check if anyone is laughing and nope, I am quite certain whatever chance of laughter I was anticipating is now gone.
You are not here though to read my bad jokes however, but rather what I have to say in response to the article. The article is about food and the effect it has both in game and outside for us who actually play the game. Whether it is used as an incentive in game, used as a health booster, opens our minds to unique tastes, or is used for bonding on a social level, food is a necessity within the gaming world and is not something that can be ignored.
Entree
Gilpin (2016) refers to the various natures of food within games and the role that they play. He refers to Castlevania, Pokemon and Minecraft as key examples. When he would a wall chicken in Castlevania, he knew it was the only thing keeping his character from death and for Minecraft he noted how it places emphasis on preparing food appropriately for survival as if our lives genuinely depended on it.
What I find funny is him referencing Pokemon Stadium which I too share splendid childhood memories. It was interesting to note how he saw the Sushi Rotation minigame and it opened his taste buds and he gained a greater appreciation for something unique. Games really do have that impact of where it can introduce to something that we are not accustomed to due to the lack of opportunity beforehand which is natural when something is of a foreign nature and we are not brought up to understand it. Games are a strong force for indicating the importance of food and can use it in whatever way that fits the purpose of the game and how it aims to accomplish its objective.
I think I speak for many social gamers out there that know when it comes to games for a social gathering, food and drink are an expectation. It is like an unwritten tradition where there be friends and games in the same room that there be snacks to follow. I of course am referring back to the article for this as it brings forth a delicious article for its point on how food can contribute to the social nature of playing games in a group.
Peterz (2016) talks about the rituals that they and their friends undertook when playing League of Legends and how food would always be the first things on their minds. What kind of food? Good ole fashioned Pizza or Buffalo Wings with an addition of some alcohol in the mix for the beverages. I can relate to this myself actually. If I had friends over for watching anime or playing a coop or fighting game of sorts we would have a bowl of Doritos’ and top it off with some Pepsi or Solo and maybe if we felt in the mood some lollies and just go all the way with the junk food rush.
“The food itself wasn’t particularly good, and Pizza West isn’t the only delivery service in the city. For some reason, it is the one we chose and the one we keep going back to. When we try something new it never really lasts”(Peterz 2016). This is the way it usually goes when it comes to that adrenaline rush when you are playing games with your friends. You are so into the activity and when you have established a tradition of sorts, nothing else can bring that same feeling. The food may not always be the best, but in good company even a lesser meal can taste like a 5 star meal.
The Main Meal
After all this talk of eating and playing games, I must say that it is rather tempting, but when you gotta do what you gotta do, you know you shouldn’t stray from what you are supposed to do. In saying that I think we can give the concept of eating food whilst playing games a break and talk about something more in the realm of computer generated designs. When you think about it, games have come a long way in how the treatment of food relates back to the character and impacts on their body.
Davis (2016) goes into detail of this process in regards to fable and how eating too little or too much actually does impact your body, be it in more of a comical fashion but nonetheless one that requires the player to consider the way they treat their character and others around them. She refers to how the game bases food based power ups on ill supported stories about how food affects certain parts of the body such as carrots and their effect on ones eyes, fish being good for the brain and so on so forth.
When I look at what she talks about, I cannot help but think of my own experience with feeding a character in a game. Feeding your own character is one thing knowing that they are in this immortal form of existence where being unhealthy doesn’t actually kill you but rather hinder you. I have played games where poor dietry habits can kill you and the famous example for this are in games such as Digimon World and Monster Rancher.
In Digimon World, if you feed your monster too often without regard for it to have to go to the toilet adds to its virus meter which can be really bad because even one slip up can stuff up your monsters development. Monster Rancher adds more to the equation but in a less comical fashion than turning you into some poop based monster. In Monster Rancher, if you are not careful with your Monsters habits whether they be diet based or stress instead of the poop monster or being shattered into a million cyber pieces, you see your monster suffering in its barn and collapsing and thus be deceased.
Now when I learnt about how my actions affected my monster in the game, I definitely had to rethink how I treated my monster in certain situations because it was evident that in this plane of existence that I had to think of something more than my own survival but the survival of another. Food is clearly something that plays more than just a means of health or survival in these games, but rather they are treated like real life beings in that the way you feed them can be either a plus or a negative in regards to their lifespan.
Dessert
I look at this article as a whole and it seems the same points arise throughout the article just coming different forms. Food is of a fundamental nature in games just as in life whether in a literal sense where we use it for social means to quell our appetite for excitement, or on a technical basis where it can be an aid or an end to a characters life. Either way, food is a part of any game that cannot be ignored and whether be it simple or advanced means that its essential nature is used, there can be no doubt that food is something that connects our reality to the world of video games and beyond.
Bon Appetit!
Recipe Book (Reference List)
Davis, S, 2016, The morphing food dynamics of the Fable series, Scenes of Eating, https://scenesofeating.com/2016/04/24/the-morphing-food-dynamics-of-the-fable-series/, Date Accessed 06/25/2016
Filipowich, M, 2016, April Roundup: ‘Food’, Critical Distance, http://www.critical-distance.com/2016/05/06/april-roundup-food/, Date Accessed 06/25/2016
Gilpin, Z, 2016, From Leonardo da Vinci to Shigeru Miyamoto: The Many Messages of Food in Our Media, Medium, https://medium.com/@hms.no.fun/from-leonardo-da-vinci-to-shigeru-miyamoto-the-many-messages-of-food-in-our-media-ff750f850516#.iw6xipcj9, Date Accessed 06/25/2016
Peterz, 2016, Pizza West is the Best, One More Continue, https://onemorecontinue.com/pizza-west-best/, Date Accessed 06/25/2016