{"id":36,"date":"2012-08-03T11:14:06","date_gmt":"2012-08-03T18:14:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/erraticplay.com\/?p=36"},"modified":"2013-10-17T16:15:04","modified_gmt":"2013-10-17T23:15:04","slug":"36","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erraticplay.com\/?p=36","title":{"rendered":"The perverse cognitive dissonance of Saints Row: The Third<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/strong>I\u2019ve been playing the video game Saints Row: The Third<\/em> (Volition\/THQ, 2011), which hits the screen like a whippet-huffed version of Grand Theft Auto IV<\/em>. To articulate this comparison in more technical terms: although the core mechanics and urban milieus of the games are similar, the aesthetics of SRTT and GTAIV engender different psychological affects in the player. GTAIV pairs the ludic struggle with a deadly serious protagonist (Niko Bellic), who metes out justice in the gritty alleys of Liberty City. SRTT, however, turns your gangsta loose in the neon, urban jungle of Steelport, stuffed in a bunny suit (if so inclined\u2014this game has big closets) and wielding a giant, lethal phallus like a sword. It’s a Freudian field day.<\/p>\n

SRTT gleefully wallows in brash, crass, and absurd storylines and gameplay. And this is all for the good. Perhaps more games could juxtapose\u2014as SRTT does with wild abandon\u2014the ridiculous and the sublime, offering players the very excesses of hilariously bad taste and neck-snapping contradictions we (sensibly) would otherwise reject, and (hopefully) would never encounter in daily life in the first place.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Of SRTT\u2019s many incongruous lunacies, one that fascinates me is the tension between a song found on the in-game soundtrack and the player\u2019s escalating collection of futuristic, military-grade weaponry. As The Saints increase their stranglehold of Steelport, you invariably tangle with STAG, an anti-gang, paramilitary squad decked out with some of game\u2019s best (and most extreme) weapons and vehicles. Having completed the main quest and effectively neutralized STAG, my cribs are stockpiled with STAG-brand airplanes, helicopters, laser weapons, and other military-grade hardware.<\/p>\n

The hi-tech toys intoxicate with destructive possibilities. Barnstorming Steelport in a STAG Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) aircraft, for example, and raining down laser fire from above has its vertiginous, lethal charms. The player\u2019s spatial relation to Steelport\u2014a warren of day-glo canyons\u2014changes dramatically when taking to the skies; the city\u2019s horizontal, planar maze becomes navigable vertically, opening up new opportunities and hazards.<\/p>\n

One such hazard is an increased dependence on technology that proves rather fragile\u2014and often fickle. For example, with the touch of a button on your player\u2019s cell phone, you direct your gang\u2019s homies to deliver various vehicles (planes, helicopters, tanks, cars) to your position anywhere on the map. Those homies, however, aren\u2019t always too keen on risking a drop in a combat zone. They sometimes hover tantalizingly overhead, until they\u2019re either shot out of the sky or just fly away, leaving you stranded in the middle of a firefight. In at least one case, an incompetent but well-meaning pilot parked my VTOL sideways in an effort to evade gunfire:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I can only helplessly pose in front of my stranded craft, acting as if everything is cool. Nothing to see here\u2026.<\/p>\n

Returning, finally, to the song. If glitches and other game imperfections occasionally disrupt our delirious technological dependencies, a track by the industrial band KMFDM titled \u201cWWIII\u201d (2003) curiously disturbs them. The song\u2019s machine-gun rhythms blast from the stereos found in the game\u2019s various vehicles (a la GTA; a common conceit of video games is presenting diegetic rationales for the inclusion of extra-gamic, \u201creal-world\u201d audiovisual objects). The song cycles through on heavy rotation (at least on one radio station), and its sonic assault certainly makes for good accompaniment while murderously cruising the streets and skies of Steelport.<\/p>\n

But the lyrics tell another story. A critique of American geopolitics and military policy post-9\/11, \u201cWWIII\u201d turns the state\u2019s authority to declare war into a hyperbolic rebuke of various abuses of power\u2014 and their detrimental consequences to mind\/body, culture, and world. Sneering the refrain \u201cWorld War Three! Be all that you can be!\u201d the vocalists \u201cdeclare war\u201d on a laundry list of nefarious political and cultural policies and practices:<\/p>\n

\u201cWWIII\u201d lyrics (or listen on YouTube<\/a>): <\/strong><\/p>\n

I declare war on the world
\nWar in outer space
\nI declare war in a nutshell
\nWar all over the place<\/p>\n

I declare war on every government
\nWar against all odds
\nI declare war on your inner sanctum
\nOn your bloodthirsty gods<\/p>\n

[Refrain] World war three – be all that you can be
\nWorld war three<\/p>\n

I declare war on the axis of morons
\nAll out war on complacent consent
\nI declare war on the war against drugs
\nRape and slaughter of the innocent<\/p>\n

War on big brother
\nWarmongers and profiteers
\nWar on your dogma dubya
\nArmageddon\u2019s engineers<\/p>\n

[Refrain]<\/p>\n

War in a heartbeat
\nI declare war on so-called civilization
\nWorld trade globalization
\nOrganized disinformation<\/p>\n

War on ambassadors of pretense
\nWar on MTV and CNN
\nMcDonald’s, Walt Disney, and Bethlehem
\nOn Christina, Britney, and Eminem<\/p>\n

I declare war on the world of anti-choice
\nOn violent unilaterality
\nOn the amassment of murderous hi-tech toys
\nAnd all crimes against humanity<\/p>\n

War on the moral majority
\nOn corporate dot com imperialism
\nOn mindlessly bumbling stupidity
\nAnd police-state terrorism<\/p>\n

[Refrain]<\/p>\n

By ignoring the lyrics\u2014or changing the channel\u2014the magic circle of the game completely enables and encourages the player\u2019s blissful development into a \u201cbloodthirsty god.\u201d But juxtaposing playful mayhem with a real referent to Bush-era policies and ideologies complicates the persuasiveness\u2014and pleasure\u2014of this alternate universe. Of course, the game\u2019s playful spell isn\u2019t completely broken by a slight brush with reality, but its firm, demented grip on the imagination relaxes, allowing authentic concerns about violence and power to seep in. Even if the player overcomes the cognitive dissonance of the song\u2019s indexicality\u2014its critique of real power and violence\u2014one must then ask: what is this song raging against within<\/em> the game? To whom in Steelport is this outrage being addressed? As the player\u2019s \u201camassment of murderous hi-tech toys\u201d mounts, there is but one logical answer: oh, that would be me.<\/p>\n

Games often confront such contradictions between ludic requirements\/possibilities and player reactions–between a game\u2019s aesthetic effect and its psychological affect. Typically, mainstream games (as opposed to art games) manage adverse affect by presenting the player with an (often flimsy) alibi for carnage and lawlessness. More recently, games have flirted with the simulation of morality (with mixed results) and given players consequential choices. The Saints\u2019 overriding objective in \u201corganizing\u201d Steelport, however, is to expand their operations in various corporate spheres (media, fashion, even sports drinks)\u2014not exactly the kind of stakes that let one off the hook for, say, killing all residents dressed in animal costumes (an incentivized side quest). Players can take pity on the furries walking around Steelport, but the main objectives are non-negotiable: the only real choice in SRTT is whether to declare war on a rival gang mano-a-mano or soar overhead in a STAG-acquired death machine. Decisions, decisions.<\/p>\n

As a video game player and media scholar, I have little patience for moralizing about<\/em> games\u2014recall that the object of Monopoly<\/em>, for example, is to financially crush another person in the name of almighty capitalism. But moralizing situated within<\/em> gameplay presents a curious effect\/affect worth further investigation. By adding \u201cWWIII\u201d to Steelport\u2019s airwaves, the game designers have\u2014unwittingly, perhaps\u2014planted a thorny rose in the garden of licentious mayhem. Considering the abundance of provocative\u2014and phallic\u2014perversities SRTT delivers, the prick of conscience may be the most messed up one of all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve been playing the video game Saints Row: The Third (Volition\/THQ, 2011), which hits the screen like a whippet-huffed version of Grand Theft Auto IV. To articulate this comparison in more technical terms: although the core mechanics and urban milieus … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erraticplay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/erraticplay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/erraticplay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erraticplay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erraticplay.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/erraticplay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":319,"href":"https:\/\/erraticplay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36\/revisions\/319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erraticplay.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erraticplay.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erraticplay.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}