I’ve been struggling with it myself and it got me wondering what tense makes the most sense when talking about a game? What does the decision to use the present tense over the past tense, or vice verse, say about our view on the game itself?
I’ve always felt that the use of the past tense implies that we are done with the game, like it doesn’t hold anything more for us. We might refer to it when comparing it with a current title, but it’s as something that’s been and gone. At the same time using the present tense can seem a strange if the game is not one being played currently.
I’ve noticed that with films and book I tend to use the present tense almost exclusively. It seems absurd to say something like “The Godfather was a good film.” It clearly still is a, very, good film. Does the nature of the games industry and the prevalence of “generations” and “cycles” naturally lead us to consider games from previous years to be old and thus cause us to use the past tense?
Am I thinking about this far too much? Does anybody else even spare a moment considering which tense to use?
Tags: The Godfather
September 11, 2008 at 6:21 pm
Mainly because the game still exists and it is still possible for me to experience it, I think I prefer the present tense. Much like with a film, book, et cetera, there is a sense that I can go back and experience this.
Which is different with certain arcade games, performance art, theater productions, et cetera. Perhaps when describing a specific instance of player reaction to the game, past sense seems to make much more sense, whereas if it is something purely within the frame of the game itself, that can be reproduced–reactions can’t necessarily.
For instance, “When I was playing (such and such) game and the narrator provided (such and such plot point), it struck me that (insert overblown rhetoric here).” As opposed to, “As the protagonist learns of his new quest to save the princess while summarily lead an uprising of mutant mushrooms, his facial expression is such that it invokes…”
It is something I had not considered before, but something I will probably now look at in my future posts and discussions.
September 11, 2008 at 8:45 pm
I’m going to agree with Denis on this one. I think it’s actually quite important that we talk about the happenings that go on within a game in the present tense. It is the norm in literature to always refer to the book in the present tense because the book always exists. No matter where I am, I can always turn to a specific page and be in the moment. In that sense Romeo is always pining for Juliet, while at the same time he is always dying.
The same goes for videogames. The princess is always in another castle for Mario while also always rescuing her at last. When referring to your own experiences, past tense makes sense. But unless referring to a past moment in a videogame in regards to another moment that happen later chronologically, present tense makes sense. It’s good way to garner respect for videogames on par with literature anyway.
September 12, 2008 at 8:09 am
I am in full agreement with both Denis and Jorge.
Indeed, in literary studies, we always discuss works in the present tense because they communicate presently and are not finsihed doing so. In fact, we usually even do the same when talking about a piece of literature in relationship to its author. Something along the lines of “In Macbeth, Shakespeare suggests that…” or even “Shakespeare says…” would not be uncommon. As I often say to my students, “Shakespeare might be dead, but he is still speaking.” This tends to make historians crazy, but what are you gonna do? Buncha literalists.
A couple years ago, I published an essay in a collection of essays on The Passion of the Christ. The editors of the collection found my use of the present tense to discuss the film’s events in present tense very odd. Likewise, I found it odd that they would find this practice unusual (film studies specialists generally follow the same tense conventions as lit specialists) until I realized that one of the editors was a psych specialist and the other was a religious studies expert (though, one would think that if discussing a religious text that one would follow this convention–we hear people say “the Bible says…” not “the Bible said…” right?).
Denis is quite right, though, that there are definitely some instances where one appropriately shifts tenses when discussing particularly time bound events even in literary studies. If I was discussing Shakespeare’s life in relationship to his work, I would certainly say, “Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway,” not “Shakespeare marries Anne Hathaway…” That event is most certainly a done deal. Likewise, Denis’ example is an apt one. A particular experience that a player had in a game refers to an event in time that has ended. Again, one would do the same in literary studies, “While reading the second act of Macbeth recently, I felt that…” not “While reading the second act of Macbeth recently, I feel that…”
I’m glad that you bring this up, though, since it made me realize that Mario may well forever declare to players, “Itsa me, Mario!!”–a fairly charming thought.