Title: Defining JRPGs Name: Douglas Schules Affiliation: Rikyyo University Contact: dschules@rikkyo.ac.

jp Overview The dissention among fans regarding how to define JRPGs raises a larger point with respect to how weas fans, as academics, as industry representativesconceptualize the genre and relate to it as a body of knowledge. While understanding the formal features of a medium and its related genres is important to categorization, we must not forget that the epistemology it engenders emerges from specific socio-historical conditions and is itself rife with power relations (Bernstein, 1983; Bordo, 1987). Even media theorist Marshall McLuhan (1994), often decried as a media determinist, recognized that our relationships with media emerge from social relationships; it is a surprise, then, that scholarship on ludology rarely draws critical connections between the formal properties of games and their realtionship to larger social discourses. This paper offers a step in that direction by arguing that the term JRPG refers to a permeable genre whose boundries are co-constructed by categorization emergent from formal properties in conjunction with social discourse circulating within multiple spheres that proscribe what consititutes "Japanese-ness", for it is really the "J" in JRPG that serves as a site of contestation. The connection between names and social position should not be overlooked, as these currents inform part of the hegemonic construct Said (1979, 1994) terms Orientalism. In the case of JRPGs different communities draw from different archetypes to inform their categorizations and in so doing offer insight into the (sub)cultural flows of Orientalism, particularly how such groups relate to Japan and its cultural, social, and political histories. As I argue that discourse about Japan informs JRPG definition, I examine those areas in which such discourse is likely to appear rather than focus on specific games. In particular, I examine debates over the status of the genre in two English forums: the JRPG Club, a website dedicated to learning Japanese via playing JRPGs, and the industry-oriented Extra Credits. Since discourse includes more than language, visuals and advertisements paired with the conversations will also be examined. Background Strictly speaking, ludology is the study of the rules through which games are structured. While this has generally focused on how one interacts with a game (e.g. gameplay for video games), it would be incorrect to conclude that an examination of a games rules precludes discussion of elements external to the medium in which they are housed. Frasca (2003) notes that the historical tension between ludology and narratology was one rooted in different, albeit ultimately compatible, methodological perspectives, and I (Schules, 2012)

have argued that the semantic operations of language exceed the simulacral strictures of video games by relying on shared cultural knowledge to co-generate game worlds. McLuhan furthers this position by arguing that games represent larger communicative needs between individuals and communities, and what define them are the interactions that they prompt: For play implies interplay. There must be give and take, or dialogue, as between two or more persons and groups. (1994, pp. 240-241, emphasis present). This interaction includes not only in media res engagement with other players, but more broadly the contestations and agreements between parties that generated the codified rules themselves. What rules get included, what types of engagement deemed efficacious, offers a snapshot of the social context in which the game was forged. In short, (video) games from their stories to their rulesare products of social interactions. Parsing the ramifications of these social interactions is especially important in terms of theorizing JRPGs. As Said notes, the relationship between the Occidental and Oriental has been asymmetrical, with the Western world frequently defining the East. While the power of definition serves a very necessary function with respect to identity and group identification (Burke, 1969), in the case of Orientalism it does so through ideologically driven mechanisms that link geography to the inscrutably alien via names. In these processes, Japan refers to not just a place in the world but also to a series of practices decidedly different from the West. Lyotard (2002) reveals the gravity of the relationship when he says: To learn names is to situate them in relation to other names by means of phrasesA system of names presents a world. (p. 44). Namessuch as JRPGonly receive meaning through the other names orbiting them, with ideologies and valuejudgments naturally suffuse these relationships. To speak of JRPGs, then, is to additionally speak of networks of power, and these naturally inform definitions of the genre. The importance of Lyotards framework lies with an explanation as why different communities may position JRPGs differently: each community positions Japan in a way that reflects its specific (sub)cultural needs. This is not to suggest that that the hegemonic force of Orientalism is lessened; rather, it suggests that communities draw upon different facets of it to articulate their understandings of JRPGs. In so doing, what counts as a JRPG varies from community to community. Selected Bibliography
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Iwabuchi, K. (2002). Recentering globalization: Popular culture and Japanese transnationalism. Durham: Duke University Press. Lyotard, Jean-Franois. (2002). The differend: Phrases in dispute (G. V. D. Abbeele, Trans.). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. McLuhan, Marshall. (1994). Understanding media: The extensions of man. Cambridge: MIT Press. Said, Edward. (1979). Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books. Said, Edward. (1994). Culture and imperialism. New York: Vintage Books. Schules, Douglas. (2012). When langague goes bad: Localization's effect on the gameplay of Japanese RPGs. In G. Voorhees, K. Whitlock & J. Call (Eds.), Dungeons, dragons and digital denizens: Digital role-playing games (pp. 88-112). NY: Continuum.