It was apparent very early on that the Luchadore needed to be stopped, but in the final moments of the game I was faced with a problem; if I continued to pursue the drug running wrestler, Killbane, it would leave my friends and family in danger. STAG, and anti-gang arm of the military, had gotten a hold of my gang and they were about to destroy them. STAG was about to destroy my city. So this was my choice: Killbane or the Saints. I could go after the villain or save the city. My decision, one of the most compelling I have ever made in a video game, was also one of the clearest; I would never leave my Saints or my city for dead. I turned away from Killbane and ran for my friends. For me, this moment in Saints Row the Third was one of the most sincere performances I had ever given in my time as a gamer. In my paper I will explore the relationship between gaming and sociologist Erving Goffman’s writing on the concept of sincere versus cynical performances. His belief that life is made up of a constant ebb and flow of both types of performances that we as audience members choose to buy into or reject shares many parallels with conversations on narrative in gaming and how deep the gamer is willing to envelope themselves in a character. How do games like Saints Row the Third, filled with 1950’s ray guns and gangs of karate strippers, still manage to “ground” us in performance? Does this lend any new insight into how a performance in a game may effect the player? Using a combination of autoehtnographic writing and performance studies theory, I plan to approach these questions and more.
About the presenterSejohn Serowik
Sejohn Serowik is a fifth year PhD Theatre student at Bowling Green State University. His research interests include performances of masculinity, both in video games and in other aspects popular culture and he has been teaching both in front of a class and in the scene shop of BGSU for all of his time there.