Week Seven: Madden and Reading Strategies

As the majority of computer games I am interested in have a strong sporting flavour, this blog post will focus on a long-standing sports game which requires gamers to employ different reading strategies to interpret the text in front of them.

The Madden computer game series, currently celebrating its 25th year, focuses on the phenomenally popular American sport of NFL or American Football, as it is also known. During this post, the different reading strategies used by gamers to interpret the representations of race and age in Madden will be analysed.  

Robert Griffin 111 as depicted in Madden

Courtesy of mymaddenpad

According to Hall (1973), a dominant-hegemonic reading or preferred reading is those that ‘have the institutional/political/ideological order imprinted in them and have themselves become institutionalised.’  Simply put, a dominant-hegemonic or preferred reading reflects society’s expected or commonly held view of a particular group or person.

In early versions of the Madden franchise, such as Madden 93 (below), player appearance and characteristics such as race and age were replicated across each team represented in the game. These representations were designed to reflect the stereotype of an American football player in the early 1990’s- big, brawny men, with the majority bearing an African-American appearance. With no distinguishing features, such as facial features, hair etc. available for gamers to single out a particular player, gamers regularly adopted a ‘preferred’ reading when interpreting the game.

Screenshot of John Madden Football '93

Courtesy of emuparadise

As the game has developed over the years, the introduction of ‘My Player’ mode has allowed audiences to interpret the game using an oppositional reading. According to Hall (1973) an oppositional reading makes it ‘possible for a viewer perfectly to understand both the literal and the connotative inflection given by a discourse but to decode the message in a globally contrary way.’ ‘My Player’ mode allows the gamer to alter their American footballers’ age, race and other aspects of their appearance until they are left with the desired characteristics. While a gamer recognises that most American football players are young, tall and muscle-bound, ‘My Player’ offers a gamer the opportunity to reject this notion and create an old, short and skinny player if desired. This example illustrates how an oppositional reading can be used to interpret the Madden computer game.

Madden 'My Player' Mode

Courtesy of ign