Semiotics in Games

To sum up semiotics in a nutshell, it's essentially a symbol used for representation of something else in a game, usually in the form of an icon or image. This can be in a huge range of different instances, such as the shape of a speaker icon that's used to represent sound settings in various games and software (screenshot of it from my PC below), a gear being used to configure options in a menu and an envelope shape being used to represent an message or email. As discussed by (Williams, 2013), these semiotics can catch on and become the standard picture used throughout most applications (like the examples I listed above), however when a game breaks these established conventions (like changing the sound button with a kite for example), then this can confused and even intimidate the end-user as it requires them to learn an entirely new control scheme and recognise an entirely new set of symbols.

The small button used in windows to change the volume of a PC, it's very iconic as a universally recognised symbol throughout various games and pieces of media to change sound settings.

As a game developer you should be aware various semiotics represent different things to different people and cultures, and it's important to note that something that may have a meaning in one may, could mean something radically different in another. For example (information researched from (Schwertly, 2014)) hand gestures like the well recognised thumbs-up actually have different meanings depending on where you are. In many English-speaking places like the UK and USA, giving the 'thumbs up gesture' (shown below) is a positive thing, it can be used to praise someone, greet them or can be shown as a sign of respect. However in other countries like Russia, Greece and the middle east, it's the equivalent to us putting up our middle fingers at each other, which is a very strong form of disrespect to us. Because of this we may think that we're being friendly giving a thumbs-up to someone of a different ethnicity, however we could actually be incredibly insulting towards them without prior knowledge or warning. Because of this even having your characters thumbs up in games (like Super Mario does in the image below) is a risky move. If a game is to be published in various places worldwide, then acts of censorship will need to be undergone in order to ensure that the game meets the suitable requirements for every country and culture your game is releasing in, and to not offend any group of people, especially in a family friendly game series like Super Mario while are well-known for having a very wide mass-market appeal with its target audience.

Mario giving a thumbs-up, he may seem quite happy and friendly to us, however a middle eastern person could feel incredibly disrespected by this image! (Chaney, 2014)

Semiotics can also be used in a game franchise to be iconic, such as a company's logo or trademark. As talked about by (Ang, 2015), on a government website, a registered trademark is a creative/ iconic sign, logo or symbol used by a developer or games company for a consumer to recognise that the product came from that specific games developer/ company. A trademark is often marked by a ™ symbol next to the trademark itself, which is shown on various brands including games. It’s a type of intellectual property, and can include a name, word, phrase, logo, symbol, design, image, or even a mix of these components. Most games and companies have trademarks of some sort, for example, here’s the trademarked logo for the Super Mario games (note the registered trademark symbol):

The 'Super Mario' logo used across various games (Funkhouser, 2015)

Many times games publishers, companies and developers will have registered their name, logo or even catchy theme tune/ jingle as registered trademarks. Alongside symbols and logos, certain iconic characters, locations and objects can also be trademarked, (even simple objects like the yellow boxes with question marks inside from Super Mario games or just Mario’s red hat are copyrighted). These semiotics in trademarks serve a good purpose to any company, and give a brand recognition as it grows andgains popularity. Customers will eventually end up buying their products because of brand loyalty, such as seeing the 'Pokemon' logo on a game's box and wanting to buy it, because they recognise the semiotic imagery as a positive thing, being a good game they've enjoyed in the past and they want to buy another one. So in that sense semiotics can also be used in advertising as well as helping users when playing games.