This is a trailer of Tony Hawk’s Underground. It is clear that this game is trying to be unique, and want to appeal to a larger group of audience. It basically has three main selling points– First, a player can be himself in this game (you can upload your own photo and make the custom skater looks exactly like you). Second, you get a chance to skate with all those pro skaters featured in the game. Third, breaking all the conventional skating game rules; you can get off your board, walk, run and even jump on a rooftop.
Somehow, this game is appealing and it challenges the gameplay of conventional skateboarding games. A player can explore a lot more of spaces, and this increases the interaction between the player with the game space. I play the free skate mode and story mode today on Xbox. Free skate mode allows you to skate anywhere you like, the neighbourhood or a park you built. However, in the free skate mode, you can only be one of the pros, you cannot be yourself or make a custom skater of your own. In contrast, the story mode, like what the trailer tells you, you can create a custom skater or even make the custom skater yourself, dress the skater up and he is ready for the challenge. Narrative of the story mode is simple: you have to turn into a pro skater from a local nobody. Through challenges with other skaters, completing certain tasks, you will start to get famous.
From my own experience in playing this game, I want to show you how Taylor’s essay on player’s identification can be understood through this simple example.
I identify with the game and I can see myself in the game space since I have a personal interest in skateboarding. I skated a few years ago and once I wanted to be those pro skaters featured in Tony Hawk’s Underground. In this game, I can be a successful skater and do all the tricks that are too difficult for me in reality. Besides, I can make my own skater, I dress him up and modify him in a way that I prefer. Everything it’s like Lacan’s theory that is raised by Taylor– I identify with the image (the character) on the game and eventually I project myself into the game. The custom skater takes the ‘common traits’ idea further by making the character and the player combining into one single person; what you want to have or what you actually have, the character shares these abilities with you. Making oneself strong enough to fulfill all those desires that cannot be fulfilled in reality through player identification is probably the main reason behind the game’s success.
However, what if the player does not know anything about skateboarding? Here, the identification would not be successful with the player cannot connect himself with the skater. Furthermore, this means the game space and the actual space that the player is playing cannot be combined as one, this makes identification impossible. Therefore, I believe some games like this can only target a certain amount of audience since they are the only groups of people who can truly identify with the characters.
