Paper

Tom Hagen

Jeffrey Ray

ART381

22 February, 2017

Gamer Theory Essay

            In his short but informative work Gamer Theory McKenzie Wark denotes the connections between various stimuli and the game most representative of this. In one particular case, he compares the allegorical implications of the widely popular simulation game known as “The Sims” and how various aspects of its features can be compared to how the player is as a human being. We ourselves are very much like the Sims that we create, often using them as a link to try and attempt various means and various scenarios on our lives. When someone first plays the Sims, they attempt to make the closest replica of themselves and their friends, as they are able to within the confines of the game’s abilities. Then we exercise various possible scenarios, be it flirting with your childhood friend, exercising vigorously every day, or perhaps becoming more and more creative. Through this we can attempt to witness what would happen if we pursued these avenues in real life, and whether or not they would be beneficial or hopelessly pointless.

            In a way, you could compare the allegorical undertones to how we construct our cities. Someone with a very orderly thought process will choose a city design that is very straightforward, organized, and in most cases as symmetrical as you can manage. Take for example, my city Lagan, which is very organized, orderly, and could be considered a dystopian utopia. On the surface, this city is more than ideal, with clean streets, low crime rates, and most everyone is well off in terms of financial and social wealth. However, beneath the surface there are lots of shady and overall frightening methods used to achieve these goals. Any and all criminals are tried in a kangaroo court, and upon being found guilty they are sentenced to forced labor until death. Every night, these former criminals are dragged out and required to sweep the streets clean, pick up every piece of trash they find, and then haul all of this waste away to be recycled. I could compare this city to the infamous phrase from George Orwell’s Animal Farm: “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” Essentially, in this society everyone starts off equal, but upon being found to be a criminal you are demoted to effectively scum on earth. Overall, San Francisco, Gothic Architecture, Timber framing, Mont Saint-Michel and just a dash of medieval German architecture inspired the design of this city and its buildings. I wanted to make a city that was both old and somewhat new at the same time. There is a fairly good chance that I will incorporate the overall hilly layout of San Francisco and the infamous Cable Car system as a primary method for ascending and descending the hill.

            I find the idea of creating a part modern and part futuristic city to be quite revolting, as when most places choose to make a new structure it involves the violation of another structure that could be 500 years old. Above that, I don’t believe this city of mine takes too kindly to public art displays, so it is in the best interests of the people to not have these displays in any way shape or form, lest they suffer consequences. On top of that, I find public art displays to be rather idiotic, as you open your displays up to the wills of man, especially in today’s age when everyone above the age of 18 has access to spray paint. In this mindset, we find a city that expresses itself not through directly public displays of art, but through the sequential painting of houses and such. On one side of this main street, I plan to have a row of houses that are color coordinated and color-softened to make a ROY-G-BIV stance, possibly reflecting homosexuality or perhaps just an aesthetic choice so that each house more or less stands out.

            To sum it all up, the city I intend to create will have a layout more or less based on Mont Saint-Michel, with the cathedral at the top so that no man rests higher than the House of God, and the houses lining a cable-car laden street that leads up to said cathedral. It is my hope that you begin your journey at the cathedral, slowly make your way down the street on a cable-car, and at the bottom is the house you are able to explore, before you depart this little island set aloft in a great river to a small cabin over a bridge that may or may not resemble the Brooklyn Bridge, where you meet your endgame. In terms of a holdout house, I think the house that you visit in the endgame will be under the bridge, fulfilling both the cabin set away from the city and a holdout house at the same time. They had to build over the cabin because the original owner refused to relocate, so they effectively cut off his source of light.

Works Cited:

Wark, McKenzie. "GAMER THEORY 2.0." GAMER THEORY 20 RSS. Future of the Book, n.d. Web. 17 Feb. 2017.