Doing a paper on PS: T

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First time posting here, hi.

So I decided to do a paper on PS: T for my Psychoanalytic Method in Culture course after some consideration and expecting a somewhat condescending answer from my professor I emailed him my decision -most other people were doing european films or 'heavy' novels. The answer I got was surprising: Apparently he'd finished the game three times, once with each class. He also gave me some reading advice on psychoanalysis, articles about Freud's thanatos principle and death drive, to be precise.

Obviously, this also means that he knows the subject matter very well. Now, I've found some online articles on Torment apart from the reviews; I was wondering if anyone else could point me in the right direction for anything that I might have missed, and also other angles. The problem is, as a lazy literature major doing an MA on cultural studies my knowledge on psychoanalysis is limited to basic ideas.

What other angles could be worth exploring? All ideas, comments, views welcome.

 

how long of a paper should this be?

The thing is, I can't think of definative sources that have to do with games and psychoanalysis, although it seems like it's something someone would do...

Actually, there's no real definative text or literature on video game theory (the way there is on film theory)...

So you might have to make do...

There's lots of stuff on film and psychoanalysis, which might be worth touching on... You might find something interesting in Freidrich Kittler...

Lev Manovich's "The Language of New Media" cites both psychoanalysis (and Freud) and games in the same book, but it's not so obvious where you could go with that...

My suggestions:

Kittler is probably right in saying that, in order to do media theory, you should have the technical details down... So it might be worth spending time on game interface, the Infinity Engine, etc. before addressing the question of narrative in PS:T. How does the IE actually work? Are there any interesting differences between so-called 2.5D game engines (like IE, that appear to run in an asometric view) and 2D or 3D engines? Is there a difference between loading a map in IE, where the textures are rendered directly on the map, and a map in any 3D game, which texture maps 3D models on the fly?

Is there anything you can say about DnD? (as a rule-based system for generatic characteristics?) And the development of TNO in the game (that the developers of PS:T modified DnD mechanics for character development... why?)

And what about setting the story in the "persistant world" of DnD's Planescape setting? Can you get anything from this, either the mythos of planescape, or just the use of persistant world settings in media in general?

Is there anything you can say about the aesthetics of the game? Why does it look the way it does, and are there any movements in art or film that it refers to?

Also, given the heavy use of text, are there any sources on Interactive Fiction or Hypertext that would be useful?

When writing the paper, you'll run into all sorts of heavily weighted terms/concepts from literary and film theory: from narrative (diagesis) to montage... but all of these will have to be recontextualized a bit when you move into game theory...

In fact, it would be most interesting (to me at least) if you could say how the narrative and narrative method of PS:T is medium specific, thus allowing you to use psychoanalysis not only on the specific narrative(s) of PS:T, but also on the game medium itself.

I.e., there's lots of stuff in psychoanalysis (also see Lacan) on subject formation: is there a kind of subject formation at work on players of video games? Does this make PS:T particularly interesting, in that it explicitly deals with the "subject formation" of The Nameless One (and what about the condition of having no name, and searching for it...)?

Also, death is another interesting idea in the game, in that games, unlike life except in dreams, allow you to die and try again... and in PS:T, this is dealt with specifically....

hope this helps...

 

Thanks, it does help a lot; unfortunately I have very little time left, since I was quite late in picking the subject, and won't be able to do justice to it I fear.

There's no set length for the paper but I believe something around 10 pages is what's expected.

Some of the things you've mentioned are indeed interesting and worth exploring. I myself have wondered about some of the points you raise especially about the narrative/medium relationship specific to Torment. For this paper though I shall have to focus on the narrative and probably only barely touch on the medium itself.

Thanks again for the extensive answer; hopefully i can do a good job with your pointers.

 

glad if I helped; a potentially large topic for 10 pages, but maybe it would work to cover a bunch of the game-medium issues quickly in a page or two before focussing on the narrative... sounds like a fun paper tho... good luck!

 

This article explains a lot of Chris Avellone's inspirations, including Archie comics, of all things.

 

Any chance your paper will be posted online somewhere at some point?