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Gaming, Film & Media ME so Christopher Hanson
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Preserving, pausing, slowing, rewinding, replaying, reactivating,
reanimating. . . . Has the ability to manipulate video game UN
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timelines altered our cultural conceptions of time? STA
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ways of experiencing time. UNDERSTANDING TEMPORALITY IN VIDEO GAMES
Hanson’s argument features comparative analysis of key video games titles
including Braid, Quantum Break, Battle of the Bulge, Prince of Persia: The
Sands of Time, Passage, The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time, Lifeline,
and A Dark Room.
Christopher Hanson is Assistant Professor of English at Syracuse
University with a background in video game and software development.
Cover design by Martin Hogue, based on an alteration of sprite artwork by Kaan Oner (Bellow).
iupress.indiana.edu
PRESS
GAME TIME
DIGITAL GAME STUDIES
Robert Alan Brookey and
David J. Gunkel, editors
GAME TIME
Understanding Temporality in
Video Games
CHRISTOPHER HANSON
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
Office of Scholarly Publishing
Herman B Wells Library 350
1320 East 10th Street
Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA
iupress.indiana.edu
© 2018 by Christopher Hanson
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by
any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publisher.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper
for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Hanson, Christopher (Christopher C. P.), author.
Title: Game time : understanding temporality in video games / Christopher
Hanson.
Description: Bloomington, Indiana : Indiana University Press, 2018. | Series:
Digital game studies | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018004321 (print) | LCCN 2017057679 (ebook) | ISBN
9780253032829 (E-book) | ISBN 9780253032782 (hardcover : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9780253032867 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Video games—Psychological aspects. | Time perception.
Classification: LCC GV1469.34.P79 (print) | LCC GV1469.34.P79 H36 2018
(ebook) | DDC 794.8—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018004321
1 2 3 4 5 23 22 21 20 19 18
For Riley, whose love and strength inspires me
every day.
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
one More than Live: Game A-liveness and Immediacy 18
two Game Presence and Mediatization 36
three Pausing and Resuming 56
four Saving and Restoring 86
five An Instinct toward Repetition: Replay Value,
Mastery, and Re-Creation 110
six Recursive Temporalities 135
seven Case Studies 156
Conclusion 190
Gameography 201
Filmography 207
References 209
Index 223
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
this book would not have been possible without the generous
support from many people, all of whom played critical roles at different stages of
this project. I am grateful for the continued feedback and advice from mentors
during my graduate work at the University of Southern California, particularly
Steve Anderson, Todd Boyd, René Bruckner, Rich Edwards, Anne Friedberg,
Tracy Fullerton, Priya Jaikumar, David James, Rick Jewell, Marsha Kinder, Tara
McPherson, Ellen Seiter, Chris Swain, and Holly Willis. I also wish to thank
John Schott for first inspiring my interest in media studies as an undergraduate
at Carleton College. Now at Syracuse University, I am grateful for the support,
assistance, and mentorship that I have received from my colleagues in the English
Department, including Crystal Bartolovich, Dorri Beam, Dympna Callaghan,
Manan Desai, Susan Edmunds, Carol Fadda-Conrey, Arthur Flowers, Chris
Forster, Mike Goode, Claudia Klaver, Erin Mackie, Pat Moody, Jolynn Parker,
Patricia Roylance, Stephanie Shirilan, Harvey Teres, and Silvio Torres-Saillant.
To my Film and Screen Studies colleagues Steve Cohan, Steve Doles, Matthew
Fee, and Will Scheibel: thank you for being great sources of advice and support,
and for reminding me of the importance of keeping a sense of humor about things.
Most especially, I am indebted to Roger Hallas, who has been a tireless and peer-
less mentor and advocate throughout my time at Syracuse. In addition, Patrick
Williams is a terrific librarian and a ridiculously dependable source of inspiration
and assistance in my research. Thank you to the talented and patient adminis-
trators in my department: Margaret Butler, Sandy Parzych, Daphne Stowe, Billie
Trapani, and Terri Zollo. And to James Bort, Jenny Gluck, Mike O’Mara, Michael
Morrison, David Seaman, Matthew Warne, and Jordan Wood, thank you for
believing in the potential of the Digital Scholarship Space. Like so many academic
books, this one is stronger because of the time spent discussing these ideas with
students in Film and Screen Studies; there are many of you, and I thank you all for
your curiosity and thoughts.
I have presented portions of this project at several conferences over the last
couple of years and am appreciative of the feedback that I have received. This is
ix
