Incoherently Fictional

After reading Fiction and Video Games as a Vehicle for Political Propaganda, I realized that I had never really played a video game and thought deeper about the messages it was trying to send across. I found myself pondering the incoherent world games and how they send subtle propaganda messages to players. A perfect example of this is the classic arcade video game Donkey Kong.

Donkey Kong was released in the very early 1980's, and has been one of Nintendo's most popular and most recognizable games. Donkey Kong is a game about Mario trying to save his wife, Pauline, who was taken and kidnapped by the ape Donkey Kong, the villain. As mentioned in Fiction, Donkey Kong is an incoherent world game, utilizing cutscenes and propaganda to become a fictional, interactive video game that cannot be explained in the nonfictional world. Donkey Kong also uses some aspects of wordly views to send across a propaganda message that fills in the incomplete fictional world.

Donkey Kong is set up with a cut scene, a scene of the gorilla climbing up a ladder and placing Pauline at the top, and sneering at the players. After that first stage, another cut scene is used where Mario and Pauline have a heart between them, but the ape pulls Pauline away, stretching and ripping their heart. This use of cut scenes sets up the plot for Donkey Kong, but also does not affect the fictional time of the game. They do not "modify the game state," as mentioned in Fiction, but do disconnect from play time. It is key to use cut scenes to fill some of the voids the incoherent world game creates, but still leaves most of the questions to simply just game rules.

Being an incoherent world game, Donkey Kong leaves an incomplete world (as mentioned in Fiction) and uses the rules in the game to make up for this. The incomplete world created begs the questions of why Mario has three lives and why does he need to constantly recapture her if he has already done so once (or many) times. The three lives of Mario could be viewed as a reincarnation, but the game suggests that "with only one life, the game would be too hard." (Juul) Donkey Kong also begs the question of the constant saving of Pauline. We could view this as she magically leaves again or the ape has godly powers, but it is answered with the rule of the game: as you capture Pauline each time, the next time is more difficult. Any player could find it hard to answer these questions, if we thought about them, but we can always answer with the rules of the game.

Donkey Kong is a fictional, incoherent world game, but also sends propaganda messages, disseminating a certain message about gender roles. Players are immersed, "the sensation of always being surrounded... by a completely other reality," in the idea that the man always needs to save the damsel in distress. (Delwiche) Although not explicit, Donkey Kong could be seen as trying to propagate the idea of gender roles. It seems far stretched when playing the game, but because it is an incoherent world game, there are a lot of questions unanswered and a lot of the fiction left up to players to interpret. A propaganda message does not need to be blatant, but the idea of a boy always trying to rescue the girl who cannot help herself can be taken as a possible propaganda message about gender roles. It is also safe to say that one may not question if this is a propaganda message concerning gender roles, because it is simply just a rule in the game that Mario is trying to rescue Pauline.

In retrospect, I think Juul and Delwiche raise a lot of good points when talking about video games. Most people see video games as a mindless act, but it is very possible to question games, especially those like Donkey Kong that leave a lot open to the mind of the player.