Performing the Self

Subverting the Binary in Combat Games

Bibliographic Data

ID2409369
AuthorsRachael Hutchinson (0000-0002-9121-6426, California University of Pennsylvania, corresponding author)
Year2007
Volume2
Issue4
Pages283-299
Publication date2007-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueGames and Culture (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1555-4120 • E-ISSN: 1555-4139
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1555412007307953
OpenAlexW2105987614
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited14

This article analyzes the quick-response binary combat game genre, suggesting that so-called "finger-twitch" games, often maligned by academics, are both complex and significant for cultural studies. While the game structure of binary combat is most often seen in terms of simple entertainment, lacking narrative power and encouraging an apathetic and passive attitude to violence, the author argues that games such as Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, and Soul Calibur are complex in terms of their construction of stereotyped identity and in the binary structure of combative play. Further, the significance of the genre lies in the performative aspects of gameplay, which problematize accepted models of identification and immersion. Once the player is introduced into the superficial binary structure of combat, then that player's choice and agency become the primary factors in gameplay, ultimately creating space for the inversion of stereotype, the subversion of gender roles and the possible transcendence of the binary system

Aesthetics · Agency (philosophy · Art · Binary opposition · Epistemology · Game studies · Literature · Media studies · Narrative · Performative utterance · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Subjectivity · Subversion · Cinema and Media Studies · Digital Games and Media · Law · Philosophy · Psychology · Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology · Social Psychology

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