I loved the article io9 did about the loss of Competence Porn (watching competent people do competent things) in SF. It noted how many SF stories had lost that element, leaving us with assorted “average” guys, non-scientists, and the like facing SF situations. I had to agree, at least on an intuitive level.
I miss tales of scientists and engineers solving stuff. I grew up with Dick Seaton (real name) of the Skylark stories. I, like many, wanted to be Spock or Scotty. I loved the idea of Iron Man and engineers making cool stuff.
I wasn’t into the idea that someone someone who lacks knowledge and skill (and doesn’t acquire them) is going to solve things. Wasn’t believable. Wasn’t a good story really. Didn’t give me anything to aim for.
(I could go into this as part of anti-intellectualism or “My ignorance is the same of your knowledge” trend or whatever, but that’s for later).
This got me thinking about gaming, another form of storytelling.
Gaming is often all about competence. There’s learning to play the game of course. Then there’s the usual RPG leveling up and skill improvement. Games often involve finding equipment and searching out resources. Lately, there’s a big trend in construction games like Minecraft and Kebal Space program where you become an outright engineer.
Gaming seems to be all about Competence Porn in its own way.
So this makes me wonder – why is it we’re losing competence porn in SF while gaming (which is becoming more popular) seems to be all about competence porn?
I should note that I have my bias here – I want a return to competence and pro-talent/pro-science elements in SF. I also figure many of you out there work in gaming, working writing, or aspire to. So this is a chance to A) understand this, and B) try and figure how we can get back to good old Competence Porn. Also it may identify demands you can fill.
So here’s some of my theories.
- Gaming is often about power anyway. So removing the competence elements really would violate the point.
- Gaming takes effort anyway. You don’t approach it without wanting to get involved an active. Fictional media, which can be more passive, makes it easier to remove competence from the equation due to passive consumption.
- Gaming and non-interactive media appeal to different audiences (or provide different needs) so there’s going to be some obvious division (and since I’ve seen constant emphasis in gaming on leveling, progress, etc. it fits).
- Gaming takes more effort to get into – you have to be aware of it, seek it out, buy things, use DLC, etc. It’s going to attract people more interested in the interactive/control/activity of a game.
- There are splits in audiences right now because of so many possible form of media. So there’s some divergence in media (perhaps gaming is getting even more about Competence Porn with all the various crafting and customization elements).
- A lot of media we consume that is more passive is marketed to broader audiences, so there’s more generalization of content.
- A lot of media producers don’t take chances and are stuck in lowest common denominators. That of course includes heroes.
I’m also wondering what various mergers of media going on, where collectable card games end up as video games, novels get game spinoffs, games influence media, etc. Who knows what influences may energize – or de-energize others.
So any thoughts?
– Steven