Current Research Seminar: Prof. Mantello (APS)
On the 20th of December, Professor Peter Mantello, presented his on-going research entitled, “The Future is Black – How America Legitimates Murder, Torture and Detention Though First Person Shooter Videogames”.
His research fields tackle a range of topics such as “War”, “Media”, “New Media”, and “Media Technologies”, among others. The intriguing title of his seminar drew a wide range of participants, including gamers and non-gamers from undergraduate students to faculty members of various departments.
Prof. Mantello started his presentation by introducing several scholars’ ideas and theories upon which his research is built. His major focus of research is the inter-relationships between “Politics”, ”Media” and “War” in the appeal of video games of various sorts. From the examples of American first person shooting (FPT) games, such as the “Medal of Honor” series and the world renowned “Call of Duty” (Black Ops) and the like, he has indicated from a qualitative sense, how the “state of exception” has been substantially applied in the hyperplastic settings of these games. Through the role of ‘witnessing’ the players, these ideas of ‘killing terrorists from certain regions of the middle east’ and ‘torturing potential suspects for intelligence to save the clients’, which are not accessible or illegal in real life has been legitimized in the games. And somehow, state interference has been shown in the game publishing history, with the specific example of the game ‘6 Days in Fallujah’, the publication of which was cancelled due to its anti-patriotic nature. Due to the time limits and the quantity of slides, Prof. Mantello’s presentation was put to a quick end for the lively discussions that followed.
The Q&A session was dominated by interesting discussions and profound comments from gamers and non-gamers, students and faculty. Topics touched on the daily influence of “lawlessness” and “anarchism” of the game “Grand Theft Auto” to the future concept of “gaming” that creates ultra-reality. Even after the close of the seminar, further discussion was continued within the audience.
Written by (Edison) Xiaolong ZOU, PhD student of GASD.
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