If I Were a Doctor...
Today I realized that if I were actually interested in postgraduate study, I would get my degree in semiotics, the study of signs and how they transmit meaning. I became fascinated with this field as soon as I learned the definitions of the words "denotative" and "connoative" meaning back in middle school - that everything you say carries 2 meanings, the dictionary definition and the definition that comes from history, culture, and employment by the populace at large.* My fascination with semiotics (though I didn't really know it by that name) lead me to become interested in social anthropology in high school, which in college lead me to study sociology. I even wrote my sociology thesis on consumer marketing strategies in televangelism - in essence, a study of symbolic exchange of religious images and how it connects to American consumer culture. I went on to become a writer and poet - again, playing with language and meaning casually - and do my day job in a public relations firm, where I have to question interpretion of words and meaning every single day.
A particular object of my fascination with semiotics and sociology is the concept of hyperreality. This theory was pioneered by philosophers such as Umberto Eco and Jean Baudrillard, both of whose writings questioning the nature of reality and perception fed popular entertainment such as The Matrix movies. Essentially, this theory says that as we place more meaning on ordinary things (such as in a consumer culture, where we assign emotional or fiscal value to things all the time through marketing and advertisment), the reality of the thing itself matters less and less - all that's important is perception. Thus, all the sodas we drink may be made in the same factory, but when one is marked "Pepsi" and the other is marked "Generic Brand", we automatically assign more value to the Pepsi label - regardless of the fact that it is literally taken from the same tap. The reality of the thing ceases to matter when it comes to actual value. This eventually starts to infect life to the point where simulation - the trumped up version of the "desert of the real" (a line shamelessly stolen by the Matrix series) - becomes the ideal, even if in reality it is unattainable.
RPGs fit squarely into the hyperreal framework. As a game of imagination, they're nothing more than entertainment, but they are all based on hyperreal simulation - in Spycraft, you're a world-saving spy who's sexier, stronger, and smarter than anyone ever could be. With your friends, you have adventures where to travel the globe for free, slaying dozens of faceless mooks who will not be missed, and committing dozens of crimes that in real life would get you a life sentence or the death penalty - without collateral damage or being caught. Yet when we walk away from that game table, we carry part of that game experience with us - the memories of playing with our friends, and the infamous "character moments" that we recant to people not in the game to show how cool our characters (or ourselves as players) really are. The hyperreal experience has floated over to and developed symbolic exchange value in our real world relationships.
Hyperreality even fits in with things we gamers think are cool - the Internet (we place immense value on exchanges done here - flame wars and friendships - even more than those with family or friends, though we actually gain nothing "real"), cybernetics (metal is better than flesh), movies, video games (simulated life that's larger than life), and yes, even porn (sexier than sex itself). These things become proxies for life as it is - not necessarily a bad thing, but definately an interesting take. Because the hyperreal philosophers contend that American consumerism is a major driving force in hyperreality's spread, is it any wonder that 85% of the RPG players in the world are located in America?
But I digress. I just think it's cool. What I can say is you should expect to see somew new stuff from me exploring the concept of hyperreality and semiotics in relation to a new project I am working on. That's all :)
* For example, to call someone "dick" whose denotative meaining could be referring to them as a nickname for Richard, or I am referring to a vulgar slang for a penis, which itself carries the connotative meaning of filth, excretion, aggressiveness or masculinity.
Today I realized that if I were actually interested in postgraduate study, I would get my degree in semiotics, the study of signs and how they transmit meaning. I became fascinated with this field as soon as I learned the definitions of the words "denotative" and "connoative" meaning back in middle school - that everything you say carries 2 meanings, the dictionary definition and the definition that comes from history, culture, and employment by the populace at large.* My fascination with semiotics (though I didn't really know it by that name) lead me to become interested in social anthropology in high school, which in college lead me to study sociology. I even wrote my sociology thesis on consumer marketing strategies in televangelism - in essence, a study of symbolic exchange of religious images and how it connects to American consumer culture. I went on to become a writer and poet - again, playing with language and meaning casually - and do my day job in a public relations firm, where I have to question interpretion of words and meaning every single day.
A particular object of my fascination with semiotics and sociology is the concept of hyperreality. This theory was pioneered by philosophers such as Umberto Eco and Jean Baudrillard, both of whose writings questioning the nature of reality and perception fed popular entertainment such as The Matrix movies. Essentially, this theory says that as we place more meaning on ordinary things (such as in a consumer culture, where we assign emotional or fiscal value to things all the time through marketing and advertisment), the reality of the thing itself matters less and less - all that's important is perception. Thus, all the sodas we drink may be made in the same factory, but when one is marked "Pepsi" and the other is marked "Generic Brand", we automatically assign more value to the Pepsi label - regardless of the fact that it is literally taken from the same tap. The reality of the thing ceases to matter when it comes to actual value. This eventually starts to infect life to the point where simulation - the trumped up version of the "desert of the real" (a line shamelessly stolen by the Matrix series) - becomes the ideal, even if in reality it is unattainable.
RPGs fit squarely into the hyperreal framework. As a game of imagination, they're nothing more than entertainment, but they are all based on hyperreal simulation - in Spycraft, you're a world-saving spy who's sexier, stronger, and smarter than anyone ever could be. With your friends, you have adventures where to travel the globe for free, slaying dozens of faceless mooks who will not be missed, and committing dozens of crimes that in real life would get you a life sentence or the death penalty - without collateral damage or being caught. Yet when we walk away from that game table, we carry part of that game experience with us - the memories of playing with our friends, and the infamous "character moments" that we recant to people not in the game to show how cool our characters (or ourselves as players) really are. The hyperreal experience has floated over to and developed symbolic exchange value in our real world relationships.
Hyperreality even fits in with things we gamers think are cool - the Internet (we place immense value on exchanges done here - flame wars and friendships - even more than those with family or friends, though we actually gain nothing "real"), cybernetics (metal is better than flesh), movies, video games (simulated life that's larger than life), and yes, even porn (sexier than sex itself). These things become proxies for life as it is - not necessarily a bad thing, but definately an interesting take. Because the hyperreal philosophers contend that American consumerism is a major driving force in hyperreality's spread, is it any wonder that 85% of the RPG players in the world are located in America?
But I digress. I just think it's cool. What I can say is you should expect to see somew new stuff from me exploring the concept of hyperreality and semiotics in relation to a new project I am working on. That's all :)
* For example, to call someone "dick" whose denotative meaining could be referring to them as a nickname for Richard, or I am referring to a vulgar slang for a penis, which itself carries the connotative meaning of filth, excretion, aggressiveness or masculinity.
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