Prologue

Videogames are distinctly authored artifacts. They are distinct from any other medium as they posit interactivity, reflexivity, & visuality above all else. Capcom’s Killer7 is one such artifact that exemplifies this positing of unique qualities, but it differs in how it implements common practices. Killer7 relies upon authored techniques of Control, Staging, and Visuality to make its mark, and stand out from mediocrity of the medium. Within this consciousness, the reader is able to engage the dynamic relationship between players and authors.

Killer7 is a commercial videogame. It was developed to sell to the consumer mass market; to be played in homes and to be entertaining. Commercialism does not forego artistic value, nor does it limit the ability to act upon us as works of fine art do. I suggest rather, that commercial videogames are primarily intended to bring a capital return upon the designers and publishers, and that this intention does not limit artistic value or validation.

With commercial gains in focus, Capcom positioned Killer7 to be one of its biggest investment returns in years. Capcom –and to a lesser extent Nintendo- hyped Killer7 to be the commercial answer to Take Two’s Grand Theft Auto [GTA], and Konami’s Metal Gear Solid [MGS] series. Not only did GTA3 and MGS2 each sell over eight million copies, but also it also definitively marked the commercial and media success of an entire gaming generation. (1) (2) Games were big.

Capcom’s Killer7 was positioned to be part of its ‘Fantastic Five’, better known as Killer7, Resident Evil 4, Viewtiful Joe, Product Number 03, and Dead Phoenix. (3) All of these games were hyped up as mature, non-kiddy games that distinguished themselves from its platform’s traditional demographic. (4) Killer7was hyped above the other new game properties as the most mature, and the most violent, placing it against the GTA/MGS demographic. (5) Killer7 was positioned to be everything these games embodied and more; through control, graphics, story, and violence. Killer7 promised to engage with schizophrenia, terrorism, murder, sex and more.

Killer7 was a direct break to the “kiddy” reputation that persisted upon the Nintendo GameCube. (6) It embodied everything a traditional Nintendo game would not, as Gamers and game culture frequently equated to Nintendo’s games to kids games. Nintendo games were read as such because they posited simplistic controls, non-mature contexts, and cartoon-like visuals above all else, ensuring that players of all ages would be able to purchase and enjoy Mario, Zelda, Pikmin, and more. Killer7 was Capcom’s fiscal answer to GTA/MGS and to Nintendo’s stigmatic “kiddy” reputation.

Being commercial does not make Killer7 any less artistically valid. Commercial videogames are just as valid and ripe for study as game art –or fine art. Being commercial does not intrinsically remove the author, but rather it occludes it. As videogames are developed regularly with development teams consisting of dozens of people, many argue that the author is dead; but even this is still frequently agued to be the case with fine arts! (7) Yet today we still recognize Film to be art, we recognize Quentin Tarantino as an author. Commercialism, interactivity, and post modernity have not yet killed the author; the author now just takes on a new locale, and finding it requires interacting, playing.

To be crystal clear; Killer7 is not an ‘art game.’ Its origin and destination is that of industry and of consumption; that of the hyper-patron. (8) The aims of Killer7 were that of commercial origin and consumer reception, not from fine arts origin for fine arts reception. Yet still, fine arts are mass market, enjoyed at homes, and are often entertaining; being commercial does not invalidate videogames as fine art.

Junction: Control

Videogames are played; not watched, not viewed, but experienced through interaction. Interaction by definition entails a pair; in order to reciprocate or influence the other or origin. (11) There is no interaction without a pair, nothing without a causal and effective. There is nothing without the game and the gamer.

Controls within videogames are the intersections between the game and the gamer. Controls determine how the game is interacted with; they entail the physical –and mental- tools utilized in the manipulation of avatars and of objects. Controls are the bridges between the man and machine.

Grand Theft Auto and Metal Gear Sold both helped to redefine and refine controls within videogames. Within their respective genres of ‘sand-box’ and ‘action,’ they facilitated the core processes of exploration and experience. (12) These two games raised the bar above and beyond what had been previously set, and so marked two distinctly defining control schemes.

Grand Theft Auto legitimized the ‘sand-box’ genre, making it possible for gamers to “go anywhere” and “do anything” within its enormously crafted environments. (13) The distinct controls allow the gamer to, in essence, go anywhere and do anything. It allowed for six degrees of un-encumbered viewing freedom, empowering gamers to drive cars, fly helicopters, run from the police, shoot gangster style, and mug hookers from an ambiguous third person perspective. Grand Theft Auto’s controls freed the gamer from the character, allowing for a seemingly endless amount of actions and exploration to occur.

Metal Gear Solid expanded the ‘action’ genre akin to GTA’s influence, but instead of focusing upon the potential for more actions, it allows the gamer to better fill the role of the playable characters. The controls within MGS allow the gamer to control with precision the freedoms associated with the character; connecting the controls the characters’ physical body limits - or a facsimile thereof. Actions here lay on a tactile plane, and with a visceral presence, requiring gamers to manage precise amounts of pressure and movement when applied to buttons and joysticks. Actions demand a heightened awareness of physical senses, intrinsically connecting the gamer to the character.

As Killer7 was being hyped as the next big thing, the gaming media and hyper-patrons were already speculating and inquiring about the details. The media had drawn out the basic narrative and visual styles within Killer7. Interviews told of the seven distinct personalities of each killer, and that the Killer7 [the personification] was one person. What they did not know was how Killer7 was going to control, and so speculated based upon gameplay media, equating it to MGS; as the game similarly took place in over-the-shoulder and first-person perspectives. Hands-on media previews referred to the controls as “third-person” and “first person” but glossed over the details, de-emphasizing them altogether, and leaving gamers adrift to the world of media hype. (14)

Now take the traditional concept of control, and ignore it; hide it away. Replace controls with Control. No longer do the controls bridge between man and machine, it is the bridge. Control is the empowerment of the gamer, and of the game; control is power.

Killer7 eschews the control schemes laid down before it. Not only does Killer7 abruptly break from its primary commercial competition, but it completely foregoes traditional genre conventions as well. Killer7 embodies Control as power, and empowerment. As GTA and MGS utilize control to allow for more and enhanced interaction [cause or effect,] Killer7 utilizes Control to force an experience; forcing interactions, limiting intuition. Killer7’s Control is both the cause and the effect; the gamer controls it and it controls the gamer.

On-Rails is the primary mode of Control for Killer7. Instead of allowing the gamer to go anywhere and do anything as in GTA and MGS, Killer7 forces interactions within a narrow pathway. Gamers are not free to go wherever, nor do whatever they like, but are restrained to a linear pathway from which they encounter antagonistic forces, known as the Heaven Smile.

Power now lies not with the gamer, but with the game. Within Killer7 the controls empower the game; the controls limit the gamer, and enact the narrative. The controls enact the will of Killer7’s protagonist [Harmon Smith] and antagonist [Kun Lau], as chess players moving their pawns across a predetermined board. This is Control.

Pawns are unable to move any direction but forward. They may not willingly move left, or right, nor are they able to act freely. Pawns serve the ultimate purpose of victory; being strategically placed and acted upon by another. They are the Controlled, and are not left to the devices of free will.

For if the gamer held free will he would surely run rampant, engaging the world of Killer7; exploring every nook and every cranny. No, in fact the gamer is under the power of Control, for if the gamer wants to serve a purpose –the purpose of reaching its destination, the purpose of victory over the opponent- he would need to pickup the controller and be subjected to the power of the game. The gamer does not have Control while on-rails; the game has Control.

First-Person-Perspective is Killer7’s secondary mode of Control. After the gamer is lead on-rails for enough time, he will encounter the Heaven Smile. Upon this moment the gamer is now empowered with Control, able to engage the zombie-like creature to progress. At this moment the gamer must –for the sake of his progress- enter the first person perspective and exert his natural tendencies.

From this perspective the gamer now has Control. He is able to be free, able to look around, take in the environments, and fill the traditional role of a gamer. Upon entrance into the body, the gamer is left solely with an aiming sight and a target; the gamer wields the power to kill. However, it is not soon after this first experience of freedom that the gamer is left with the knowledge and experience that he is no longer able to move his character. (15) Whenever he enters first person perspective, he is limited; he is only able to kill or be killed. The gamer is only left with the power to take life or fail at the game; fail at being a gamer.

Killer7 redefines the idea of controls entirely, placing the game and gamer within the domain of Control, within power. (16) The gamer is limited to exert his natural tendencies; limited beneath the ever-present Control of the game. The game is limited in executing Control; limited by free will of the gamer. This paradox emerges as one of Killer7’s greatest strengths, simultaneously placing the gamer in the context of the guard and the inmate. The gamer is both controlling yet being controlled; he his all-powerful, yet powerless. This is Killer7’s Control.

Junction: Staging

Videogames are constructed; they don’t magically appear. Code does not write itself, visuals do not leap from the ethereal plane, and logic does not just exist. There is a force behind everything and a context from which it originates.

Staging is the constructed context in which a gamer is directly addressed. Staging addresses the player, the gamer, not the character, nor the avatar. It may be something minuscule and simple, or it may be something grand and complex. The game may offer you –the gamer- a choice of names or statistics, or may stop and talk to you directly, even using your name or personal information. (17) It is not important in what fashion you are addressed, but that it is addressing you.

Staging within Killer7 is a form of addressment, a form of speech. The game formally and repeatedly speaks, addressing the gamer and his notion of self-identity. It is always a disconcerting feeling when being addressed by an inanimate object; in such that you don’t know if you should pay no attention, or special attention to what is being said. Killer7 offers a multitude of Staging, but to best determine if we should be paying attention I will focus upon two examples.

A junction is a point where two or more things are joined; but more often than naught we view them as a place where one thing splits into two or more things. (18) When on the railway, trains and passengers often encounter such junctions. Within that context, the conductor must choose which route is the best, selecting one and forcing all within the train to follow. Within Killer7 the gamer is frequented by junctions while on-rails, forcing a choice; demanding that the gamer determine which path he will take to best reach his goal, and taking with him the seven personalities within the Killer7.

Upon encountering a junction, (stairs, a door, a path, etc.) the gamer is no longer able to blindly progress forward upon the rails. He is instead seen as running in place, spinning his proverbial wheels upon the choice confronting him. When confronted with this choice the gamers’ screen is visually overhauled changing dramatically on two fronts, directly addressing the gamer.

First, the normal perspective that the gamer interacts with changes dramatically. The camera swings from its normal over-the-shoulder view to a new perspective, not conforming to any usual genre standards, and not to Killer7’s normal perspective. The viewpoint seems random upon encounter, and is not easily –nor ever- learned by the gamer. The change conveys an unease and disembodiment from the game, forcing the gamer to situate himself outside of the camera, and outside of the game itself.

Secondly, a large visual text-map overtakes the screen. The gamer, are forced to read and choose which path to take in order to progress. The text, much like the perspective, appears random and non-conducive to muscle-memory nor memorization, leaving the gamer to visually and textually read, acknowledge, and accept a path before entering. It is only when he makes the choice, this choice, that the game allows progression. Only from this progression is the gamer able to be.

Beyond the junction, the gamer encounters an oddity, an unknown. The gamer approaches a bloody paper sack in a strangely familiar area. Upon encounter the screen cuts out, filling the television with the snow of no signal, of no game. His viewpoint fills with the image of another’s television. It appears blank, allowing him to see his own reflection inside of if, but then suddenly powers on. He see a past persona, a past life, from which only the bloody paper sack remains.

Staged at this instance, the game steps outside the conventional context, placing the gamer in a position to confront the fractured identity of the Killer7, and their own role within. The gamer is Staged, situated to engage with the seven personas through the in-game television, freely exploring the identities and personas through the physical lens of their own screen; forcing choices between life and death –not-life- through the material world atop the game’s.

Forced to distinguish between personas, the gamer is poised to presuppose his self-identity atop the persona hierarchy within Killer7. The gamer is now aware of himself, and his Control. The television acts upon the gamer much like a mirror, forcing awareness of self-identity, and reflexivity, in a Lacanian sense. The gamer is left to choose his role within this new context, and more immediately, with the revival of the fallen personas of game and gamer alike.

The gamer is nothing more than a perpetual child, trapped within unknown environments, encountering new events; imposed upon to make important decisions. Games are the mirrors, allowing gamers to see the gamespace, the world within they live, and their place within. (19) Unfortunately some mirrors are not as reflective as others, occluded by frivolities and trifles. But within Killer7, reflectivity manifests through Staging, imposing upon the gamer to choose; forcing him to realize that he is different and separate from the seven personas within. These choices, these Stagings give gamers Control.

Junction: Visuality

Videogames are visual; they are a faculty of insight. They are not a primary of a singular sense. Neither hearing, sight, smell, taste nor touch, may illustrate nor accompany an idea alone. Rather in sight, is the seeing, the divulging, the process of sense and of sense making.

Killer7 employs a sense of Contemporary style, of graphic arts, of Anime. It transcends the two-dimensional formats to that of the third dimension, receding from gamespace; receding from the screen. Killer7 encapsulates and encloses this dimensional hyperbole, calling upon the cells and shadings of the visual to create and enclose the world from which the game and gamer interact.

Just as Pokemon influences and sways millions of children daily beneath its visual style, so too does Killer7 influence and sway the gamer. For both, the commonality of the child is immutable. Both mediums in their own rite are adult, yet child-like. They are both suspect to the child, irrefutably connected to the self-reflection of the gamer. Foreign ideologies and philosophies do lay within Killer7, expressing themselves through the sense, and sense making; through the Visuality.

Killer7 methodically encapsulates this distinct dichotomy of child and adult, of gamer and game, for an expressive purpose. It adopts both the cell, and the shading, for more: objects, animations, and actions. Killer7 adopts the cell and the shade, as cell-shading, conveying more through procedural expression; It empowers the hardware, forcing it to its maximum processing intensity [horsepower,] better facilitating more Control, and more Stagings. (20) (21)

Seemingly, no lawyers, senators, nor rating boards would ever sensibly approve of a commercial game containing schizophrenia, terrorism, murder, sex, child mutilation, organ harvesting, nor suicide. Kids surely have seen enough realism on television, and surely notions previously mentioned would be overly grotesque if seen as realistic. Killer7 would be near unbearable if it lacked the visual style it so embraces; it would break cohesion with the game and gamer. Even as visually stylistic as it is, Killer7 may already be “a criminal conspiracy to distribute sexual material harmful to minors in violation of criminal statutes.” (22)

Killer7 utilizes Visuality to occlude visceral ideologies of Control, passing them by the Entertainment Software Rating Board [ESRB] as an “M” [Mature] title. It allows the game’s content to be palatable for the gamer, allowing him to experience disconcerting events beyond the visual. (23) For without the visual style, without the bounding box of the cell, monstrosities would be sure to follow, leaping from game to gamer, causing nausea and finally aversion.

Without Killer7’s visual style, Visuality only facilitates the gamespace, -the real. The game cannot access the gamer without a cell, nor the gamer access the game. Both must primarily posit the sight, the insight, to empower interaction. Both must see to interact, to Stage, and to Control.

Epilogue

Videogames are uniquely distinct from any other medium as they posit interactivity, reflexivity, & visuality above all else. Killer7’s use of Control, Staging, and Visuality pronounce the medium’s distinctness, but in a uniquely authored manner. Killer7 is a prime example of the authorial dialectic; the author investigating notions of truth, and opinion, inquiring into the dichotomy of the physical-metaphysical. (24)

Goichi Suda [Suda51] is said author of Killer7. (25) He is the director. He is the writer. He is the auteur (26). Control, Staging, and Visuality are Suda51’s marks; they are his original concepts, his distinct ideas, his “punk spirit.” (27) (28) Without Suda51 there is no Killer7, there is no artifact.

Killer7 is a commercial game. Goichi Suda was paired with renowned producers, Kobayashi Hiroyuki of the Devil May Cry series, and Shinji Mikami of the Resident Evil series, to ensure a commercial success, and to ensure that it was the rebuttal to the success of GTA and MGS. Killer7’s hype and media secrecy were not mere trifles, but planned marketing strategies. Much to the dismay of Capcom, Killer7 sold abysmally in the United States, and while continuing to author new games, Suda51 now leads his company Grasshopper Manufacture [GHM] with new publishers willing to take risks. (29)

Self Reflection was simultaneously the beauty and bane of Killer7. It failed so horribly commercially for the same reasons it succeeded as an authored artifact. Goichi Suda’s concept, his “punk spirit,” and his dialectic were just too strong. The gamers are in fact players; they have no intention of critical thought. For players, Suda51’s game while stylish was too obtuse. The players ended up not only seeing the game, but also themselves in relation to the game. Inevitably, like many children, they saw themselves and became scared.

“Killer7 really is a piece of art as far as gaming goes.” (30) You just have to be gamer to be aware, and aware to be a gamer.

Footnotes:

1. Big Gaz, “Metal Gear Solid 3 Exclusive for Sony,” Gameplanet (May 15, 2003). http://old.gameplanet.co.nz/mag.dyn/ Features/1751.html. (March 14, 2008).
2. Piper Jaffray, “Second Annual London Consumer Conference,” Take-Two Interactive Software (September 26, 2007). http://www.corporateir.net/ireye/confLobby. zhtml?ticker=TTWO&item_id=1642557. (March 14, 2008).
3. IGN Staff, “Capcom’s Fantastic Five,” IGN (November 13, 2002). http://cube.ign.com/articles/377/377330p1.html. (October 27, 2007).
4. Robert Levine. “Reaching the Unreachables,” CNNMoney (October 1, 2005). http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/ business2_archive/2005/10/01/8359280/index.htm. (March 16, 2008).
5. From this point on, I refer to gamers solely as a male or masculine to better place him within the target demographic of Killer7 and for ease of reading. Gamers are also female or feminine equally.
6. IGN Staff and Hiroyuki Kobayashi, “Interview: Killer7. How exactly do you play this game? Producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi explains…sort of,” IGN (March, 7 2004). http://cube.ign.com/ articles/499/499432p1.htm. (October 23, 2007).
7. Roland Barthes, “The Death of an Author,” in Image, Music, Text. Transcript, Stephen Heath, (New York: Hill and Wang, 1977), 142-81.
8. The hyper-patron is a person who gives financial or other support to something [a cause, event, person, organization, or item,] while being overly energetic to the point of near unusualness or addiction. Look no further than many avid gamers.
9. Roger Ebert, “Games vs. Art: Ebert vs. Barker,” Chicago Sun- Times (June 21, 2007). http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/ pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070721/COMMENTARY/70721001. (November 6, 2007).
10. McKenzie Wark, “Agony,” in Gamer Theory. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007) 12 – 20.
11. “Interaction.” The New Oxford American Dictionary, Version 2.0. 2005. Apple Inc.
12. Controls within videogames, like other media, are bound by conventions of genre. Each genre gains its own distinct control scheme, facilitating play and adaptation. The controls within videogames are bound genre specificities temporally, adopting or commenting upon implementations by other titles within its genre.
13. Eric Qualls, “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Review),” GamesFirst (2004). http://www.gamesfirst.com/index. php?id=188. (March 14, 2008).
14. IGN Staff and Hiroyuki Kobayashi.
15. I refer to Killer7’s personas as characters as opposed to avatars to avoid semantic baggage. In the case of Killer7 I feel that either term is applicable to the game as it engages with notions of self-identity, and simultaneously stays distant.
16. Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Translated from the French by Alan Sheridan, 1977. (New York: Vintage Books, 1995).
17. Konami. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (videogame). Tokyo: Konami. 2001.
18. “Junction,” The New Oxford American Dictionary, Version 2.0. 2005. Apple Inc.
19. McKenzie Wark, 19.
20. Cel-shaded animation (also called cel-shading or toon shading) is a type of non-photorealistic rendering designed to make computer graphics appear to be hand-drawn. Celshading is often used to mimic the style of a comic book or cartoon.” Also referred to as cell-shading.
21. Ian Bogost, “Procedural Rhetoric,” Persuasive Games. (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2007), 44.
22. Jack Thompson, “Killer 7” personal email to Patricia Vance, president of the ESRB, JackThompson.org, (August 5, 2005). http://www.jackthompson.org/video_game_cases/killer7. htm.. (March 13, 2008).
23. “Titles rated M (Mature) have content that may be suitable for persons ages 17 and older. Titles in this category may contain intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content and/or strong language.” (ESRB, “Ratings Guide,” in Entertainment Software Rating Board (November 11, 2007). http://www. esrb.org/ratings/ratings_guide.jsp/. (November 11, 2007).
24. From this investigation, I wonder if distinctions between character and avatar are irrelevant in cases of strong authorial dialectic. Notions of identity/self-identity, embodiment/ disembodiment, agency/target, real/unreal, and author/player become mute.
25. Suda51 is a pseudonym for Goichi Suda; “Go” “ichi,” equating to “51.”
26. “Auteur.” The New Oxford American Dictionary, Version 2.0. 2005. Apple Inc.
27. IGN Staff and Hiroyuki Kobayashi.
28. Chris Woodward, “Post-GDC: Suda says Punk’s Not Dead,” in Gamasutra (March 12, 2007). http://www.gamasutra.com/ php-bin/news_index.php?story=13098. (October 26, 2007).
29. VGChartz, “Killer 7 (PS2),” in VGChartz (October 23, 2007). http://vgchartz.com/games/game.php?id=3586/. (October 23, 2007).
30. Ivan Sulic, “Preview: Killer7. Mister personality disorder slaughters zombified time bombs,” IGN (February 25, 2005). http://cube.ign.com/objects/495/495539.html#previews/. (October 26, 2007).

References:

Barth, Roland. “The Death of an Author.” In Image, Music, Text. Transcript, Stephen Heath, New York: Hill and Wang. 1977.
Big Gaz. “Metal Gear Solid 3 Exclusive for Sony.” May 15, 2003. Gameplanet. (March 14, 2008) http://old.gameplanet.co.nz/mag.dyn/Features/1751.html.
Bogost, Ian. “Procedural Rhetoric.” Persuasive Games. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2007.
Ebert, Roger. “Games vs. Art: Ebert vs. Barker.” Chicago Sun-Times, June 21, (November 6, 2007) http://rogerebert. suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070721/ COMMENTARY/70721001. Foucault, Michel. Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Translated from the French by Alan Sheridan,1977. New York: Vintage Books, 1995.
IGN Staff. “Capcom’s Fantastic Five.” November 13, 2002. IGN. (October 27, 2007) http://cube.ign.com/articles/377/377330p1. html.
IGN Staff and Hiroyuki Kobayashi. “Interview: Killer7. How exactly do you play this game? Producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi explains… sort of.” March, 7 2004. IGN. (October 23, 2007) http://cube.ign. com/articles/499/499432p1.htm.
Konami. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (videogame). Tokyo: Konami. 2001.
Levine, Robert. “Reaching the Unreachables.” October 1, 2005. CNNMoney. http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/ business2_archive/2005/10/01/8359280/index.htm. (March 16, 2008)
Qualls, Eric. “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Review).” 2004. GamesFirst. (March 14, 2008) http://www.gamesfirst.com/index. php?id=188.
“Second Annual London Consumer Conference.” Take-Two Interactive Software. 26 Sept. 2007. Piper Jaffray.
Sulic, Ivan. “Preview: Killer7. Mister personality disorder slaughters zombified time bombs.” February 25, 2005. IGN. (October 26, 2007) http://cube.ign.com/objects/495/495539.html#previews/.
Thompson, Jack. “Killer 7” personal email to Patricia Vance, president of the ESRB. August 5, 2005. JackThompson.org. (March 13, 2008) http://www.jackthompson.org/video_game_cases/killer7. htm. VGChartz. “Killer 7 (PS2).”
VGChartz. http://vgchartz.com/games/ game.php?id=3586/. (October 23, 2007)
Wark, McKenzie. “Agony.” Gamer Theory. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007.
Woodward, Chris. “Post-GDC: Suda says Punk’s Not Dead.” 12 Mar. 2007. Gamasutra October 26, 2007. (October 26, 2007)