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Performing the Self

Subverting the Binary in Combat Games

University of Pennsylvania

This article analyzes the quick-response binary combat game genre, suggesting that so-called "finger-twitch" games, often maligned by academics, are both complex and significant for cultural studies. While the game structure of binary combat is most often seen in terms of simple entertainment, lacking narrative power and encouraging an apathetic and passive attitude to violence, the author argues that games such as Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, and Soul Calibur are complex in terms of their construction of stereotyped identity and in the binary structure of combative play. Further, the significance of the genre lies in the performative aspects of gameplay, which problematize accepted models of identification and immersion. Once the player is introduced into the superficial binary structure of combat, then that player's choice and agency become the primary factors in gameplay, ultimately creating space for the inversion of stereotype, the subversion of gender roles and the possible transcendence of the binary system.

Key Words: stereotype • Soul Calibur II • violence • identity • performance • agency

Games and Culture, Vol. 2, No. 4, 283-299 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/1555412007307953


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