Futures of Learning

Piratão, Boit Tatá, Carnaval 2009, Rio, Published under a Creative Commons License by URBefotos

According to Lugo, et. al (2002), at the turn of the century Latin America represented “a marginal segment of world sales: only 2 percent of the world consumption of software and hardware” related to video games. Despite the relatively low numbers associated with official video game consumption, popular discussions of gaming and video games suggest that there continues to be a widespread adoption of, and passion for, video games. For instance, when Video Games Live came to Brasilia for a performance to celebrate video game culture and art in September of 2007, the show was sold out (see a video promo of Video Games Live in Brazil in Brasilia on September 30, 2007. Between 2005 and 2006, media giant Globo integrated kids playing a virtual reality game Conquista de Titã (Titan’s Conquest) into their daily ‘TV Xuxa’ program. Brazil’s gaming culture is also noted throughout the gaming blogosphere for the proliferation of different games and gaming consoles (e.g. Spanner 2005), particularly NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) games (http://www.nesplayer.com/pirates/index.htm). Abragames, (Associação Brasileira das Desenvolvedoras de Jogos Eletrônicos), Brazil’s primary gaming association, consistently works with the Ministry of Culture to promote and enhance the local gaming industry, a reflection of an ongoing debate concerning the extent to which the industry should expand and even nationalize the production of software (Lugo, et.al. 2002 note that Brazil has been fairly conservative in this respect). This dichotomy between the official gaming industry discourse about of games and the presence of gaming culture in Brazil stems, at least in part, from the high cost of video game consoles and software in Brazil due to high importation taxes as well as the pervasiveness of video game piracy in Brazil (Rapoza 2005). According to TexPine (2008), the situation can be described as follows:

“Game piracy is endemic: 94% of PC retail games and nearly 100% of console games are pirated. Not even the richest youth of the country bothers to buy original console games, which cost US$ 98. Like everyone else they can easily spot illegal street vendors selling pirated games for US$ 8 or less. On online-distributed games, even low-cost Brazilian titles in Portuguese like Brasfoot (US$ 7) and CaveDays (US$ 14,5) are hacked by piracy-dedicated blogs, foruns and Torrent sites.”

In the first half of today’s blog post I explore the relationship between video games, piracy and the development of the gaming industry. In the second half, I draw upon popular and academic research on video games to examine the discourses and practices surrounding video games and gaming in Brazil, and consider the implications of these practices for future research on the theories and practices of gaming.

A Brief History

Brazil’s entrée into gaming coincided with the release of the Odyssey in 1981 and the Atari system in the late 1980s. As noted previously, high importation fees enforced by the Brazilian government made the systems difficult to acquire and ardent gamers began looking for alternative ways to expand their game play. Starting with Atari consoles, a full scale industry around cloned console systems emerged (lstr 2000, Spanner 2005). Around 1990, the Brazilian company Gradiente released the Phantom System, an NES clone which effectively transformed the NES into the dominant platform in Brazil, despite the fact that Nintendo did not formally release its console in South America (TSR 2000.). By the mid- 1990s, Brazilians had customized various consoles so that they could accept Nintendo games that came from Japan and the United States (Nintendo’s two largest markets). This continued with the release of the Playstation. According to Spanner (2005),

“This completely turned the tables on the way Brazilians perceived their game playing experience as compared with the rest of the world. The software was already there, available in vast and diverse quantities, and would play in almost any console bought, so the buyer’s quandary came in the form of deciding exactly which NES or Atari compatible clone offered the features they wanted. Software wasn’t a concern; it was the hardware that mattered.”

While gamers may view Brazil as a gamer’s paradise, the persistence of piracy has discouraged companies such as Sony to sell games in Brazil. As Rapoza (2005) notes, Brazilian game developers cannot create games for the PlayStation2, and consoles such as the Xbox and Nintendo systems are not sold. Because the pirated video game market is so rich and varied, “A game that might sell a million original copies in Wal-Mart in the United States will sell fewer than 10,000 in the Wal-Marts of Brazil” (Rapoza 2005). One of the more interesting responses to this climate of piracy is the increasing support of online games by software companies who charge subscriptions for use on a monthly basis. This enables companies to check the licensing of software and establishes online distribution channels which are often free. Games that follow this model are Ernia and FutSim. (Wharton School of Business 2004). Although a recent, and somewhat public, confiscation of a piracy operation might suggest a shifting attitude by the Brazilian officials who want to encourage the development of the local gaming industry, the large scale production of video game hardware and software seems destined to continue.

The State of Play

Inclusão digital, SAO PAULO -SP - 11.01.2008 - INFORMATICA - Nitro Lan House, localizada no Grajaú. Nas palavras do dono, “aqui abre mais lan house que boteco”. Folha de S. Paulo. Published under a Creative Commons License by Paulo Fehlauer

The debates about a shift in focus to the local video games market also reflect broader debates within Brazilian society about the ‘effects’ of media and their social value, most prominently the association between video games and obesity as well as violence. As early as 1999, Quake was also banned (along with 133 other games). In 2008, Everquest and Counterstrike were banned by a judge in Brazil deeming them “dangerous to consumers health” (LA Times 2008). Counterstrike, whose content was localized to mimic the favelas in Rio de Janiero and involved characters such as police offers and drug traffickers vying for control of the area, was considered particularly disturbing given players ability to fight the police. Two months later, a judge consulted with psychiatrists and others before announcing his decision that the video game Bully should be banned due to the association of violence in schools (Delahunty 2008). While there has in general been outrage and protests by the gaming community, more cynical commentators note that these bans only help the publicity for a particular game that the industry itself will not make money from in Brazil one can count on the wide availability of bootleg copies.

Much like we see in school and afterschool programs in the United States, these attitudes towards video games also impact the accessibility to gaming. Bar (personal communication) notes that telecenters and POS make it a point to ban gaming and other activities, such as accessing Orkut, downloading music, that are viewed as “unproductive” or “a waste of time”. While the field of game studies, new media and learning reveal the importance of gaming for entertainment, collaboration, organizing and mobilizing and civic engagement (see Gee 2004, Ito and Bittanti Forthcoming, Ito, et. al. Forthcoming, Kahne 2008, Squire and Steinkhuehler 2005), it is clear that video games continue to be perceived as antithetical to the educational and civic missions of the telecenter effort. This attitude has two implications. In the first instance, and coupled with efforts to offer low-cost loans to individuals and families to purchase computers for use at home, many youth and others who enjoy playing video games simply do not use the telecenter. The second, more common practice is the use of LAN houses.

In his blog post to Overmundo, ronaldoweread (2008) notes that roughly one-third of Brazilians use the internet at cybercafe’s and LAN houses which offer relatively cheap access (prices vary between R$0,50 the R$1,50 per use to play games or access the internet with a broadband connection). Unlike telecenters which restrict activities, LAN houses have become a central site for playing games, updating and checking Orkut pages and socializing more generally and have transformed these spaces into a hotbed of activity for youth and others. Bar (personal communication) suggests that the use of LAN houses is not just a low-income phenomenon, isolated to individuals who cannot afford a home computer or reliable internet access. Rather, he found that many people are co-opting (and paying for) private and for-fee internet cafes precisely for the social purposes, such as hanging out as well as more formal practices such as LAN parties. In other words, even as the lowered cost of computers and the internet reduces the need to share computers and thus creates the possibility for more networked forms of social interaction surrounding games, Bar suggests that face-to-face socialization surrounding games – what Ito and Bittanti (forthcoming) have termed “recreational gaming” – continues to be important, if not preferable for many Brazilian youth.

In addition to LAN houses and parties, Adriana De Souza de Silva carried out research on the emergence of mobile gaming. Brazil’s first Location Based Mobile Game (LBMG), Alien Revolt was released by the MInd Corporation in 2005 and was operated by Oi in Rio de Janeiro. The game narrative involves a battle between alien forces who invade earth and the humans who resist them. Players then choose their team and the type of character they will be and begin the battle, or duel, in the physical site of the city. As she notes, “Players up to three kilometers apart can see each other on their cell phone screen radar. The closer the opponent, the larger the character appears on the screen. Like in Botfighters, shots are more accurate at a close range” (21). This feature is enabled by the use of java-enabled Nokia phones. Collaboration between plays is structured into the game and a sense of community emerged for players of the game, evidenced by the creation of a group in Orkut. While De Souza de Silva (2008) notes that games are generally quite popular in Brazil, her research also highlights the current limitations which impact the widespread adoption LBMG in countries like Brazil where, even in the second most populous city of Rio de Janeiro, participation remained limited to around 300 people (in a city of 13 billion people). De Souza de Silva attributes to the high financial costs of participation, including the purchase of an expensive handset and the high cost of internet enabled services, a topic I will discuss in more detail in next week’s post on mobile phones.

Conclusion

Between pirated consoles and other hardware, the presence of gaming in LAN houses and the emergence of location-based mobile gaming, popular and academic accounts of gaming suggest that gaming is an important dimension of everyday life in Brazil. In addition, gaming is prevalent across the socioeconomic spectrum. Indeed in Tobias Hecht’s (1998) study of Brazilian street children, he notes that “street children often stick together—stealing together, using drugs together, playing video games together - often without apparent interest in doing these things with other children” (158). Yet, despite the pervasiveness of gaming throughout the country and its status as an important site for game innovation (whatever the legalities of these innovations may be), we still know very little about the dynamics of everyday gaming. There may be a number of reasons – the prevalence of piracy and practices that occur outside of the legal framework may be a difficult site to access and ultimately may jeopardize some of the communities researchers may study. The stigma of study gaming may also not sit well with funding agencies, other researchers as well as institutions that undervalue the importance of popular culture and/or do not want to legitimize activities widely perceived as unproductive, particularly for youth. What is clear is that Brazil offers a rich arena for understanding and theorizing connections between new media and learning.

References:

De Souza e Silva, Adriana. 2008. Alien Revolt (2005-2007): A Case Study of the First Location-Based Mobile Game in Brazil. IEEE Technology and Society Magazine Spring 2008: 18-28. http://repository.lib.ncsu.edu/publications/bitstream/1840.2/1953/1/IEEE_AlienRevolt.pdf, Accessed November 10, 2008.

de Souza e Silva, Adriana. 2007. Cell phones and places: The use of mobile technologies in Brazil. In Harvey J. Miller’s Societies and Cities in the Age of Instant Access. Springerlink.

Delahunty, James “Dela”. 2008. Video game ‘Bully’ banned in Brazil. AfterDawn April 13, 2008 http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/13640.cfm, Accessed December 1, 2008.

Fragoso, Suely, et. al. 2008. Learning to Research in Second Life: 3D MUVEs as meta-research fields. International Journal of Education and Development Using ICT 4(2)

Gee, James Paul. 2004. Situated language and learning: A critique of traditional schooling. London: Roultedge.

Góes, Paula. 2009. Brazil: Introducing the Web, a “Digital Baptism” Global Voices Sunday, March 8th, 2009. http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/03/08/brazil-introducing-the-web-a-digital-baptism/, Accessed March 9, 2009.

Hecht, Tobias. 1998. At Home in the Street: Street Children of Northeast Brazil. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Ito, Mizuko and Matteo Bittanti. Forthcoming. Gaming. In Ito, et. al’s Hanging Out, Messing Around and Geeking Out: Living and Learning with New Media. Cambridge: MIT Press.

Kahne, Joe, Ellen Middaugh and Chris Evans. 2008. The Civic Potential of Video Games MacArthur Foundation Occassional Papers September 2008. http://www.civicsurvey.org/White_paper_link_text.pdf, Accessed October 20, 2008.

LA Times. 2008. Blogs: Brazilian video game ban angers fans. February 5, 2008. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/laplaza/2008/02/brazilian-video.html, Accessed December 2, 2008.

Lugo, Jairo, Tony Sampson and Merlyn Lossada. 2002. Latin America’s New Cultural Industries still Play Old Games: From the Banana Republic to Donkey Kong. Game Studies 2(2), http://www.gamestudies.org/0202/lugo/, Accessed November 5, 2008.

TSR. 2000. Aqui se faz aqui se paga: The NES in Brazil. Lstr’s NES Archive: Brazil. January 20, 2000. Champaign, IL. http://www.atarihq.com/tsr/nes/brazil/brazil.html, Accessed March 2, 2009.

ronaldo we read. 2008. Festa Na LAN House. Overmundo October 1, 2007. http://www.overmundo.com.br/overblog/festa-na-lan-house, Accessed March 10, 2009.

Squire, Kurt and Constance Steinkuhler, C.A. 2005. Meet the gamers: Games as sites for new information literacies. Library Journal. http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA516033.html

TexPine. 2008. How Piracy can break an industry: the Brazilian case. http://texpine.com/2008/02/15/how-piracy-can-break-an-industry-the-brazilian-case/, Accessed January 25, 2009.

Tori, Bernandes and Nakamura. Teaching Introductory Computer Graphics Using Java 3D, Games and Customized Software: a Brazilian Experience. Interlab

Wharton School of Business. 2004. Brazil: High Taxes and Piracy Challenge the Promising Market for Video Games. Universia Knowledge Wharton July 28, 2004. http://wharton.universia.net/index.cfm?fa=viewArticle&id=814&language=english&specialId, Accessed March 2, 2009.