Video games: Tomb Raider and GTA
QUESTION: Q. To what extent do the lines between reality and simulation blur in the video game industry? Use Baudrillard's theory to explore two video games you have studied.
Q. To what extent do the lines between reality and simulation blur in the video game
industry? Use Baudrillard's theory to explore two video games you have studied.
Introduction:
Baudrillard argues the idea that in a postmodern age of simulacra, we are immersed in a
world of images which no longer refer to anything ‘real’. Modern technology may confirm his
idea, as technological development has actuated video game developers to improve their
graphics and gameplay to look and feel more realistic. Video game players even praise this
advancement and want to be immersed in these realistic fictional worlds, and it can therefore
be said that perhaps the lines between reality and simulation have certainly collapsed. The
video games ‘Grand Theft Auto’ (GTA, GTA V, GTA O) and ‘Tomb Raider’ (TR) will be
studied in this analysis.
Point One:
In accordance with Baudrillard’s Theory of Postmodernism, ‘Grand Theft Auto’ has
constructed a hyper-realistic world by encompassing a vast number of small details
replicated from the details of our real physical world, supported by advanced graphic
technology, in which the attributes of many physical things are continuously in motion. For
instance, in ‘Grand Theft Auto V’, vegetation will sway in the wind for as long the wind is
there in the same manner that real-life vegetation would. Vegetation can also respond to
avatar movement if it comes in contact with the avatar and can emit authentic rustling
sounds. Baudrillard may propose that ‘GTA V’ is an explicit ‘reflection of a profound reality’ in
which it may also seem more real than reality. Video game players are able to live
simultaneously in both worlds, making it difficult to differentiate between what is genuine and
actually profound and what is artificially constructed. As a result of this, the two worlds of
fiction and reality may blur in the eyes of the player.
Point Two:
Similarly, ‘Tomb Raider’ also reflects the real world through the imitations of real life, such as
environments across Mexico and Peru in ‘Shadow of the Tomb Raider’, and through
reflection of indigenous people. ‘TR’, however, exaggerates its hyperrealism by constructing
hyper-realistic stereotypes in which the indigenous people are aggressive. As the execution
of this can be so convincing and persuasive, it may subsequently replace the original reality,
leading video game players to develop the thinking that if indigenous people are a threat in
video games, they must also be threats in the real world. Baudrillard may describe this as a
‘hyperreal henceforth sheltered from the imaginary’, in which it entails the idea that in this
hyperreal world, there is no way of knowing the difference between real, canonical
indigenous people and a simulacrum of indigenous people as there is no longer any
‘distinction between the real and the imaginary’.
Point Three:
Perhaps, reality and simulation have merged into a seamless continuum through false
imagery. Baudrillard explains that simulating is ‘to feign to have what one doesn’t have’, and
‘GTA’ players demonstrate this by creating and customising their own character through
‘Grand Theft Auto Online’. Many players aim to construct the ideal version of themselves,
and they will present themselves in a completely virtual world with other idealistically
customised avatars that reflects little to no attributes of the real person behind the screen.
However, it is more complicated than it being false as Baudrillard states that ‘simulating is
not pretending’. This may imply that players want to go beyond living in a simulation and
wish to live in a reality that is perfectly aligned with their desires. Baudrillard may further
imply that players will exist in a reality for so long where they and other players are perfectly
true, that their perception of the real world will be distorted enough that they start to expect
to see false perfection in our flawed reality.
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