Hail to the Context, Baby

Eric Alberts 3485595 Game Studies NMDC David Nieborg 14 June 2011

Illustration 1: Duke Nukem by Olly Moss. Source: Wired.

On the 10th of June in the year 2011 the world witnessed the release of a videogame with probably one of the industrys most remarkable background stories. Duke Nukem Forever (2011), the follow-up to the once massively popular game Duke Nukem 3D (1996), was officially announced in 1997 and has been in development for over fourteen years. The game became the victim of an ever-lasting soap opera with a leading role for a perfectionistic and hesitant production company (3D Realms) that was not able to meet its own high expectations. 3D Realms fell into bankruptcy, fought several lawsuits and was eventually forced to sell the rights to the franchise. Now, with the game finally released, reviews and articles of the game emerge rapidly across the Internet, in newspapers and game magazines. With such a remarkable history, game journalists almost automatically tend to place the game within a broader historical context. According to Richard McChesney, author of the book The Political Economy of Media, this tendency is not that self-evident. McChesney states that present-day journalism tends to avoid rather than automatically provide contextualization. What little context is provided, moreover, tends to conform to official source consensus (McChesney, 31-36). Coverage on

the recent release of the Duke Nukem instalment might be an exception to McChesneys statement as contextualization is provided. The main question driving this essay, therefore, is how the contextualization in the coverage on the recent release of Duke Nukem Forever relates to the bias1 of the professional journalism code, that journalism tends to avoid contextualization. Do the recent reports on Duke Nukem Forever undermine or validate McChesneys statement? In order to answer this question it is important to first get a comprehension of what game journalism is and how it relates to traditional elements of journalism. Comprehension of the occupational ideology of game journalism will show that it comprises of a very different set of elements than traditional journalism (Nieborg & Sihvonen, 6). In their study on game journalism Nieborg and Sihvonen situate game journalism as a mediator between its readers and the game industry. This mediating role, which consists mostly of a review/preview structure, overshadows critical and analytical writing (2). Nieborg and Sihvonen state that, generally speaking, the core principles of journalism do not seem to be on a par with how game journalism works in practice (ibid.). The thought of the game journalist as someone able to make or break a game, conduct investigative reporting on upcoming titles or instigate debates on widely ignored issues generally does not coincide with reality as game journalism derives its primary source of revenue from the game industry (Nieborg & Sihvonen, 5). Is the coverage on Duke Nukem Forever, with its many background stories, an exception to the general praxis of game journalism one might ask? On first sight it appears so. Searching for Duke Nukem on major game and tech websites like Kotaku, Wired, Ars Technica and IGN brings up articles that do contextualise Duke Nukem Forever within its long and turbulent history. Stephen Totilo of Kotaku writes that [t]his extraordinary Duke Nukem Forever revival story goes back a long way (Totilo 2010), Ben Kuchera of Ars Technica devotes an extensive article on The Death and Rebirth of Duke Nukem Forever (Kuchera 2010) and Clive Thompson of Wired Magazine writes about How Success Killed Duke Nukem (Thompson 2009). Looking at these articles more critically, however, one can hardly conceal the notion that these articles are quite similar in their contextual approach.

When looking for reviews instead of articles of Duke Nukem Forever on the Internet a similar approach can be noticed. In IGNs review of the game An Aging Icon Awkwardly Enters a New Era editor Charles Onyett contextualizes the new Duke Nukem game by comparing the lead characters performance to its last appearance in Duke Nukem 3D: Duke Nukem has always been a walking joke, a vainglorious 1980s-style action star parody overflowing with testosterone and disdain for anything that doesn't involve squashing aliens, drinking or girls. In Duke Nukem Forever, he hasnt changed (Onyett 2011). Although Onyett focuses on the main character, his contextualization remains historical. Contextualizing the game historically certainly is not wrong. It is in fact noting more than logical. Providing a historical context to Duke Nukem Forever is inevitable in order to say something meaningful about the game. It, therefore, proves to be quite difficult to say if the contextualization in the coverage on Duke Nukem Forever undermines or validates McChesneys statement that journalists tend to avoid contextualization. In the case of Duke Nukem Forever a minimal amount of historical context has to be given because that is what the reader expects. What can be said about the contextualization of Duke Nukem Forever is that the articles and review mentioned above all chose the obvious historical approach when a game journalist, in theory, is entirely free to provide a different or less obvious context. Placing the coverage on Duke Nukem Forever within the larger context of game journalism, Charles Onyett of IGN could have taken his choice to focus on the main character a few steps further. Perhaps a comparison could have been made with the characters in Gears of War in order to say something about hyper masculinity in blockbuster games. Another approach could have been to unravel why Duke Nukem has remained so popular during all those years. What does that say about the game industry, game consumers or popular culture? Besides a historical context a social or cultural context could have been given, which could have instigated different, less obvious coverage on the game. Investigating the character of Duke Nukem and its hyperbolic and satiric elements could have also provided a fitting rebuttal of the accusations made

in an article by Fox News on violence and sexism in Duke Nukem Forever. In the article by Jeremy Kaplan and Patrick Manning it states: Brace yourself for the awfully sexist world of Duke Nukem Forever. [] They may have crossed the line this time (Kaplan & Manning 2011). Tom Goldman of The Escapist takes notion of the accusations made by Kaplan and Manning by stating that the article goes wrong in its failure to explain that Duke Nukem Forever is one big joke. [] Its not supposed to be taken seriously (Goldman 2011). Goldmans commentary on the article by Fox News confirms that game journalists play a crucial role within game culture. As stated above and according to Rebecca Carlson game journalists act as mediators of knowledge and value for video games (Carlson 2009). Journalists like Goldman have the agency to steer the debate on violence and games or even the debate on games in general. If game journalists would pick up that glove more often and provide a little bit more contextualization every now and then they might even be able to take away some prejudices about games that exist in mass media. In this essay I have tried to elaborate on the importance of contextualizing games within game journalism and the lack thereof as stated by Robert McChesney in his book The Political Economy of Media. The historical contextualization of the game Duke Nukem Forever could possibly have been a good exception to the bias of professional journalism of avoiding contextualization. Because Duke Nukem Forever has to be contextualized in order to say something, if not anything, meaningful about the game, it is rather difficult to say if it indeed proves to be an exception to the rule. The games preceding history has played a too significant role in creating the eventual product. Nevertheless, that does not devalues the fact that many game journalists have placed Duke Nukem Forever within some sort of a context. In the case of Duke Nukem Forever, however, the given context remains to be historical and rather one-sided. Social, cultural or gendered contexts might have revealed different aspects of the game or could have shed a different light on the game industry in general. Game journalists, in theory, have a leading role within the general debate on games. In practice, however, the game journalist is knit up in actors, both human and nonhuman (Carlson 2011), which make it hard to fulfil such a role. This wide

set of actors consist mostly of a dependency of the game journalist on the industry they ideally should criticise and it continuously shapes and transforms game journalism and the options it has for mediating commodity value and the related, appropriate knowledge (ibid.). This process unfolds against the larger backdrop outlined by Robert McChesney in which commercial interests increasingly penetrate the news, thereby corrupting its integrity. The question remains whether or not game journalism will strive towards wider contextualization of games. What we do know, as stated by Nieborg and Sihvonen, is that the occupational ideology of the game journalist has not evolved beyond gatekeeping (Nieborg & Sihvonen, 7). With McChesneys arguments in mind, fully independent game journalism might very well be impossible. I agree, however, with David Nieborg when he states that there really is no reason not to continue to strive for independent game journalism: So many topics remain undiscussed, so many games unreviewed and so many stories untold. For an ambitious and willing game journalist the virtual world is at his or her feet (Nieborg, 232). Who better than the Duke can put this strive towards independent game journalist into words: Hail to the context, baby.

Notes
1 The

tendency to avoid contextualization is the second of three deep-seated biases

of the professional journalism code stated by Robert McChesney. The first bias is a matter of sources: Professional journalism regards anything done by official sources (government officials, prominent public figures etc.) as the basis for legitimate news. The third bias is a matter of corporatism: Professional journalists tend to smuggle in values conducive to the commercial owners and advertisers as well as the political aims of the owning class (McChesney, 31-36).

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