Lecture Library

Jim Profit exposes the underlying 'Game Mechanics' of Life. By Levin Menekse

In the Chapter 4 of his book `Gaming`, Galloway talks about the algorithms of games. He quotes Ted Friedman on Civilization: ` To win, you can`t just do whatever you want. You have to figure out what will work within the rules of the game. ` Galloway also talks about console games such as Tekken, in which the player have to input certain combinations; - X O O X, for example - to successfully execute advanced techniques. But what happens to the player as he or she inputs these commands? Does he or she learn something? Would playing an immensely complicated version of Sim-City help a person become a better city planner? Can Civilization teach you how to rule the World? Galloway mentions in the chapter that: ` Captains in the U.S. Army learn wartime tactics through games such as Full Spectrum Command. `, so there is obviously some input into the player. 

And does that not mean there is an algorithm, a certain ` Game Mechanics `, to Real Life as well? For example, at the most macro level, a strong economy and a couple of well-armed allies can allow a country to survive without the need to have a strong army, just like the soft-power countries in Civilization - just like Iceland in Real Life. At the most micro level; we stop at red-lights and continue on green ones. Or as Janet Murray puts it in ` Hamlet on Holodeck ` : ` We sing along with the chorus and remain silent for the verse; we answer the singer’s call with the appropriate response. ` There are also examples such as Neill Strauss’s ` The Game ` , a book that aspires to teach the algorithm of dating and picking up women. One might think the reasoning behind titling the book ` The Game ` is to, theoretically, expose the things which we are conditioned to believe as magical and ineffable - romance, love etc. - as simple and mechanic. Just as pushing a series of buttons in a successful order; just like Tekken.

Finally, allow me to quote the following lengthy passage from Hamlet on Holodeck before I introduce our Protagonist for this essay: ` The crucial difference, however, between folk art rituals and computer-based interactions is that on the computer we encounter a world that is dynamically altered by our participation. On the ballroom dance floor, we can at most influence our partner, but the musicians and the rest of the dancers remain relatively unaffected. Within the world of the computer, however, when the right file opens, when our spread-sheet formulas function correctly, or when the simulated frogs flourish in the model pond, it can feel as if the entire dance hall is at our command.`

Well, meet Jim Profit, the entire corporate world is at his command. His life-long quest is to become the CEO of Gracen&Gracen, a prestigious global company, and his favorite tool is manipulation. He is a master gamer of Real-Life and he can move people like pawns. He always has the right answer for every question. Examine this clip: This is his first day at the company. He is just been promoted to Junior V.P. after the former V.P. died of a suspicious heart-attack. (Guess who did it.) There is also an ongoing problem at the company, someone has leaked confidential information about a baby-food company they are acquiring and their shares have plummeted. (Guess who leaked that information.)

Watch Clip: ` Jim Profit - Introduction ` 

How did he learn to manipulate human behavior so well? He might be a suave gentleman in public, but in private, Profit is a tortured soul. He has been abused by his alcoholic father and grew up in a card box. He was forced to watch TV all day. One surmises that he learned the algorithm of Real Life from the TV. And today, he plans his strategies through his computer, in a spatial environment which resembles a video game. ( This is apparently how, at that time, in mid 90`s, people thought websites would look like. ) Sitting stark-naked in his secret chamber, he navigates the Gracen&Gracen`s virtual office, and observes his targets as if they are the Boss-Monster’s in a video game. This clip also further demonstrates the interaction between games and Real Life; here is a man, sitting vulnerable in front of his computer in the dark, alone and separated from everyone on the planet, and yet he is influencing major changes in Real Life. Through his computer he finds paper trails to blackmail people with and hacks into important accounts, it is an important part of his Agency. Also notice, how, at the end, when he crawls into his old card-box, it is no longer a television that stands across him, but a computer. Television is where he learned the algorithm, computer is the medium in which he re-enacts it onto other people. And finally, when he breaks the fourth wall and talks to the audience it is especially eerie, because it reminds us that the Real-Life he navigates through with such supreme confidence, as if it was a game, is also our Real-Life. Thus, it highlights the fact that we might also be manipulated and used as a pawn in the Profit’s game someday. This places him in a position of power not unlike a commander in a strategy game.

Watch Clip: ` Profit ruling the World through his computer. ` 

In her essay Hamlet on Holodeck, Jane Murray talks about the pleasure of puzzle-solving. She gives the example of Odysseus’s complex plan of attack against the Cyclops, and mentions the pleasure of puzzle-solving in video-games. This is something Profit excels in. To vanquish his opponents, who are, again, visually manifested on cyber-space in a way akin to Boss Monsters, he puts pieces of a puzzle together and concoct extremely complex plans. The surprise is that the pieces are usually people and they almost always act like Profit pre-supposed they would. Examine this scene in which Profit destroys the reputation of Pete Gracen by manipulating him into attacking his older brother, the CEO of the company, Chaz Gracen. (Also notice how Pete Gracen`s virtual avatar is destroyed as he gets, metaphorically, destroyed in Real Life.) This puzzle is dazzlingly complex; first, Profit befriends Pete and finds out that he is suspecting his wife is having an affair with another man. Then Profit seduces Nora, Pete’s wife, into having an affair with him on a weekend retreat. Of course this is not a random retreat; Chaz is also there with one of his own mistresses, Alleen. Profit found out about this by digging on Alleen and Chaz and matching their paper trails. And then he sabotages a contract, so that Pete has to get Chaz to sign a paper immediately. Finally, after he gets everyone into place, he calls Chaz and Nora into the reception and the fireworks fly:

Watch Clip: ` Profit, Pieces of a Puzzle. ` 

To conclude; does Real Life have an algorithm? Do certain buttons yield certain answers? Can we learn about it from watching television or playing video-games? Well, we might not know the answers to these questions. But beware; Jim Profit does. 

Levin Menekse