THE MANIFESTATION OF KIM KARDASHIAN’S AESTHETIC AND GLAMOUR LABORS IN KIM KARDASHIAN: HOLLYWOOD MOBILE GAME
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E-Journal of Cultural Studies
DOAJ Indexed (Since 14 Sep 2015)
ISSN 2338-2449
Nov 2020 Vol. 13, Number 4, Page 12-38
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THE MANIFESTATION OF KIM KARDASHIAN’S AESTHETIC AND GLAMOUR LABORS
IN KIM KARDASHIAN: HOLLYWOOD MOBILE GAME
Tresya Pricillia Soehendar1, Ellita Permata Widjayanti2
1,2English Department, Faculty of Language and Art, State University of Jakarta, East Jakarta
Email : 1t[email protected], 2[email protected]
Received Date Accepted Date Published Date
1-05-2020
20-10-2020
30-11-2020
ABSTRACT
Disproving the ‘famous-for-being-famous’ epithet, Kim Kardashian shares the intricacy of the tricky and binding work of celebrity into the nascent screen-based culture, the mobile game Kim Kardashian: Hollywood (KK: H). With swipes and taps to follow the in-game stories, the KK: H player discovers the set of rules and features of KK: H that welcome them to the digitalized version of aesthetic and glamour labors where the states of being fashionable, ageless and charming are matter. Through an analysis of in-game dominant discourse as well as the player’s game experience shown in Facebook public groups, this study explores the underlying values manifesting the practice of aesthetic and glamour labors as an engaging strategy of digital gameplay. The exploration falls into four stages of docility (Power, System, Surveillance, and Normalization) that built upon Michel Foucault’s theory of Docile Body to examine the gameplay as simulating the “real” constitutive social practice of celebrity that lead the examination to the case of Hyperreality. The result of this examination places KK: H as the particular cultural representation as well as a seemingly playful parody of celebrity work wherein the pursuit of mass beauty standard is associated with the pursuit of fame in the interest of financial benefits and personal satisfaction.
Keywords: Kim Kardashian, Aesthetic and Glamour Labors, Kim Kardashian: Hollywood (KK: H), Docile Body, Hyper-reality.
INTRODUCTION
In the era of mainstreaming digital medium, body (superficial look) and image (persona) become the currency of promotional value, notably, for celebrity as the intermediary of brandmarketing. Indeed, eschewing from the historical foundation of celebrity that has been an
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entertainer in social media to the greater extent of the internet, the notion of the importance of celebrity now is forcefully pushed into a celebrity system that attempts to “expanding its enterprise beyond its original goals” (Choi and Berger in Boileau, 2017) whereby body with its attribute still be the part of management that is commodified in celebrity labor practice (Boileau, 2017, p.3). The celebrities have to shape their bodies to look like the product of work because fashion couture that is invented by the fast-fashion purveyors is already embedded as body couture (Hyland, 2015). Body couture itself is a practice in which a celebrity is also capable to wear the body as the form of couture to comply with the client and spectacle’s requirements.
Celebrity in that case has a role as a commodity, precisely, a commercial product that P. David Marshall (1997) said can be manufactured and traded by promotions and publicities in media industries. At the most pragmatic level of becoming media coverage, celebrities would construct an image or persona of themselves – maintaining two selves in one body with a constructed attitude through fashion management.
The notion of persona performed the duality between “myself” or “being for itself” and “my self in the eyes of others” or “the being for others” (Morrison, 2014). Taking an example from the American sensational media personality Kim Kardashian, she typically dresses up in a more revealing way for the professional purpose of advertisement rather than in the moment of her exposing personal motherhood (Pasenen, 2018). Thus, she exemplifies Merleau-Ponty’s (1976, 1981) concept of body that considered a body as a visible vehicle of self. She turns her body into the object in time and space by involving the body in a particular environment to identify self with commitments to certain projects (Entwistle & Wissinger, 2006, p.12). With mind and consciousness, Kim performed labor on her body as she was locating her body in a ‘definitive environment’ such as a workplace, and then leads her to set the context whereby her body is objectified and commodified.
According to Entwistle and Wissinger (2006), the notion of body-objectification has become some of the researchers’ focuses, for their attention is drawn upon the body management in contemporary labor practices. Within that broad research, the analysis has been directed towards ‘aesthetic labor’ to represents current trends in work practice. Aesthetic labor is usually used to promote products and services (Wissinger, 2006. p.6). It refers to ‘embodied capacities and attributes’ (Warhurst & Nickson, 2001: 13) that enable employees
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to ‘look good and sound right’ for the job (Entwistle & Wissinger to ibid, 2006, p.2) because producing an attractive look is considered as a ‘professional’ attitude in a style labor market.
In their study of aesthetic labor, Entwistle and Wissinger (2006), focus on the case of fashion modeling in New York and London. They argue that models have a similar condition of working within the so-called ‘culture industries’ such as film, media, advertising, and so on. In these industries, one should strive for their careers because the patterns of culture industries are highly individual and idiosyncratic which forced them to depend upon luck and the ability to create and use social networking and encounters (McRobbie, 2003) or ‘social capital’ in Bourdieueian lens. Besides social capital, to gain entry tickets to the competitive industry and stay within it, fashion models must adhere to the strict standards. They have to be thin or muscular, slacken the aging process, and adjustable to the whims of fashion trends, as demanded by performance work standard of modeling, television, film, and dancing industries. As a result, constantly having commitments to body maintenance and style customization outside normal working hours (looking great every time) is a must for them (Entwisle & Wissinger, 2006, p.12).
Kim Kardashian who is the role model with the talent of “looking great”, once said “There’s nothing we can do that’s not documented, so why not look your best, and amazing?” (Paper Magazine, 2014). She implies that the works in culture industries (along with its requirements) involve in the daily lives of the related laborer, and she begins to normalize it by patently declaring that those who do not subscribe the tenets of glamour means they are unacceptable to be part of the industry. Through the writer’s observation of Kardashian’s reality TV show ‘Keeping Up with the Kardashians’ per seasons (2019), Kim with other Kardashians clan indeed tirelessly working on her body and image either in the workplace which values her as an aesthetic laborer and in digital media which embroils her to the realm of ‘glamour’ in Elizabeth Wissinger’s sense (2014).
The attempt of Kim Kardashian personalizing her body is back-to-back taken into account by Wissinger. She examines Kardashians as the phenomenon where the labor market is now centered on the activity of body and style customization and it is defined as ‘glamour labor’. Kardashians exemplify the glamour laborers, for investing time and effort into editing the body and self to appear as fascinating in highly filtered and manipulated online life for the sake of achieving social legitimacy such as "likes" in the digital world (p.2). As a result,
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the ‘glamour labor’ in the case of Kardashians becomes a common desire for the public (Wissinger, 2016, p.8).
By revealing the effort to be glamour, the Kardashians (notably Kim Kardashian as the pioneer of raising fame), show the young women (who are in the productive ages) that she is merely an ordinary American girl with all American work ethic. This means by working hard (work the body out), young women are capable to develop a successful career as she did. In this frame, Kim Kardashian implicates glamour labor as the route of fame for female, and many women have adopted her techniques (Wissinger, 2016, p.6). As they investigate the Glamour Girls reality show, Coy and Garner (2010) once stated that celebrity lifestyle which facilitated by money (such as celebrity parties, branded clothes, holidays, bodily beauty treatment, and other leisure time with VIP treatment) are the prominent associations of young women’s dreams (p.667).
The success of Kim Kardashian was then manifested in a form of a role-playing mobile game named ‘Kim Kardashian: Hollywood’ (abbreviated into KK: H). In this game, the players are persuaded to create a digital journey with the motive that they can achieve fame within the game world. The concept of the game is simple: the players need to work their way up the chart of Hollywood to become an A-List celebrity and Kim Kardashian who appears as the non-playable character as a mentor who will show them the path to fame. The game adapts Kardashians’ personal life (e.g. socialize, dating, married and having kids) and professional life (e.g shoot for a reality show, advertisements or campaign, do the photoshoot, modeling, talk-show, interview, held and attend parties, attend award and fashion show, and many more) that will be possessed by the player once they occupy the realm of KK: H. In living the life of Kardashians which is celebrity-based life, the acts of aesthetic and glamour labors are entangled to the players in their virtual world. It could be seen through the game practices/movements/activities that are conducted by the discourses that appear through in-game written text (such as narrative dialogue box and text box) and in-game visual features (such as wardrobe, ‘show your style event’, etc).
By June 2020 Google Playstore record more than 10 million people download this game since it is launched in 2014, and it has more than 45 million downloads in two years according to Wire (2016). The aforementioned huge number of people in a long period shows that the players are docile enough to constantly undertake progressive game activities even with several forcing rules. The concept of the docile body itself is a part of an interactional analysis
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in respect with Foucauldian perspectives such as the living body is filled up with discourse, becoming an individual; bodies are categorized by encountering rules of conduct to attain a certain identity; bodies are motivated to avoid punishment and receive rewards; by learning “the know-how” and outcome of certain described events and positions, individuals are induced to follow the imperatives of discourses (Hestad, 2008, p.22 - 24).
As such, this study aims to examine the act of aesthetic and glamour labors (as the predicted engagement of playing KK: H) within Kim Kardashian: Hollywood mobile game and there out the game in a form of player’s shared experience through Facebook public groups. This game has also been studied by Alison Harvey (2018) who examined three aspects in KK: H namely the game content (celebrity culture), economics (free-to-play within game purchases), and mechanics (affective engagement) to understand how the game gain receptions by functioning links. The examination results in the conclusion that KK: H is not merely a mobile game but also a cultural object intertwining a range of issues in celebrity, social media, and new models of feminine labor.
Chess and Maddox (2018) also shed the light on the issue within KK: H. In their study "Kim Kardashian is my New BFF: Video Games and the Looking Glass Celebrity", they use several celebrity-games which are considered as a feminized product to examine the engagement between players and the related celebrities with celebrity culture. The concept of looking-glass celebrity is demonstrated in their study, for it includes the idea that players' actions are depending on how their game avatars are viewed.
Indeed, the players of this game strongly engage in and out of the game. By willingly follow (docile to) the rules of in-game aesthetic and glamour labors, the players arouse the desire of having abundant virtual outfits to the next extent. They are willing to gather creating community on the real-life online medium to seek, show, and vote all for the virtual outfits. Thousands of committed players could hunt for and discuss virtual outfits beyond the game such as on Facebook public group of KK: H players – involving their “real” physical life for enhancing the virtual life (hyperreal). In all conscience, virtual outfits are needed merely to fulfill the player’s satisfaction in adapting the system into superficial. It is because players actually can escape from the computational object at any time – since the decision to fully exit is on their hands. In that hook, they have to come to terms with the magic trick of Kim Kardashian: Hollywood game as what it calls aesthetic and glamour labors.
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This study then explores the underlying values manifesting the practice of aesthetic and glamour labors as an engaging strategy of digital gameplay. It examines how the game creators with the power embedded in all features inside the game make the player docile to all the rules set in it. It also explores how the game leads the players to live in hyperreality in which they act in a real-world like being in the game.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The case of this study is investigated using a descriptive-analytical method. The data source of this study is a mobile game named Kim Kardashian : Hollywood (KK: H). The primary data are the textual and virtual discourses that appear through in-game written text (in the form of a narrative dialogue box and text box) and in-game visual features (in the form of promotional tag, wardrobe feature, and Show Your Style features) that are all constructing rules or statement related to style, fashion, appearance, or look of game characters (read also: indicating the issue of aesthetic and glamour labors).
The activities (such as postings) of KK: H game players as online communities in Facebook groups would be taken into consideration (as additional data) to dismantle fatherly the performance of digital aesthetic and glamor labors beyond the game. The additional data is utilized due to KK: H is designed to be sensed as a social network, and it is confirmed by its developer, De Masi (2016), who tries to build “communities” within the game. Facebook public group is the platform that enables the players to share their game experiences and problems on a large scale, and also creating events for other fun. All of these primary and additional data are collected in the form of screen-shoot images and are classified according to the sub-cases around the main issue.
The selected in-game written texts and visual features of KK: H would be analyzed in advance with Docile Body – undergone to 4 systematical steps. Firstly, identifying the power relation. Secondly, analyzing how the power holder constructs the drive system that consists of persuasive play and rules. Thirdly, analyzing how the act of surveillance is involved, and fourthly, analyzing the forms of normalization to players until they are labeled as docile. The result of the first layer of analysis would uncover the manifestation of aesthetic and glamour labors in a mobile game, and how it engages players in the game. That result is amplified to the next stage by analyzing its effect for the player’s real-life – connecting the concept of Hyper-reality to Players’ Online Community.
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Docility Stages for the Manifestation of Kim Kardashian’s Aesthetic and Glamour Labors
Similar to the notion of ‘Quest’ in a game, labor involves commitment and docility to continuity. To analyze the form of labors in an environment or medium, it is needed to identify the way the related medium is constructed as best as creating disciplinary action for the participant or creating docility. Docility is accomplished by using power in creating the system that manipulates the body in which it includes the constant surveillance and normalization that all for the power holder’s advantage and keeping the society in harmony (Foucault: 1995).
1st Docility Stage: Constituting Power
Prates (2014) once emphasized, that although games are “strategic interactions between rational individuals in a social environment”, they did not provide equal forces for players (p.1). Regarding the game theory, power is possible to be understood in a way it can affect the relationship between the players and the agents who involve in game-development – assuming that one side of the agents has more forces than others, and by the forces, they can guarantee that their wills are easily achieved (Balzer, 1992). In a game, it is common to realize that the players have different forces with the game developers who capable to create and upgrade the rules within the system that the players participate in.
In Kim Kardashian: Hollywood game, the higher forces are not merely possessed by the developers but Kim Kardashian as well. Kim, her family, and her relatives are created as non-playable characters who possess the higher ranks beyond in-game Hollywood Chart. Consequently, they are not considered as number 1 A-list celebrities (the highest rank players) but A-list VIP celebrity. Being a VIP celebrity makes the position of Kim Kardashian, her family, and her relatives are unbeatable, even for Kim’s in-game Best-Friend-Forever (BFF), the player’s character (player’s avatar). As such, Kim Kardashian and other classified VIP celebrities are created to be looked up by the players, prominently, as the fashion style inspirations in a game. It could be proven by the way the game frequently puts the outfits as ‘Kim’s Pick’ or using the headline ‘Shop Kim’s Closet’ for the promotional tag (Figure 1). Additionally, the available purchased clothing(s) in the wardrobe feature (Kustomize) are mostly the duplicates of the Kardashians in a real life. There are hundreds of style options for the player’s character to the taste of Kardashians and mainstream celebrities which are sleek, glamour, sexy (revealing), skin-tight, etc.
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Figure 1. The Currency.
Set of Clothes that is Picked by Kim is Sold Through the Promotional Tag and Worth Real-life
Many of the products from the real Kim Kardashian’s personal and favorite brands including the brands of her relatives (such as Karl Lagerfeld, Oliver Rousteing, Erika Jayne, etc.) are infused digitally as a commodity to monetize players. In the sense of Prates (2014), Kim and Glu (the game developer) used their power to obtain any kind of material or immaterial advantages because power is indeed concealed in a manipulative way to reach the utility and economic level of the body (Foucault in Beheshti & Shafieyan, 2016, p.3).
The forces of the game developers in KK: H is concealed by the way they create some of the fictional or non-playable characters (NPc) that actively help players to build their virtual career as a celebrity as well as to influence players in terms of making a decision in the game world. For example, when the player’s character is still an ordinary shop clerk and is destined to join Kim Kardashian in the magazine photo-shoot section for the first time, the player is started to be required to look dressier by Kim to meet the expectation of the photographer (Figure 1.). As soon as the fictional character of Kim suggests the player’s character to move, the only in-game activity that is accessible at that moment is “Dress to Impress”. Through the non-playable characters such as Kim Kardashian (who would be the mentor as well as BFF of the player’s character), the developers begin to lead the players to the main purpose of the game in which personalizing the avatar as good as possible either by getting virtual outfits or purchasing it.
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Figure 2. The Non-playable Character of Kim Kardashian Suggests the Players to Dress up for the Photo-shoot that is Conducted by the Demanded Photographer Named St. Garret Clair, and Later the Suggestion Becomes the Obliged Quest with the headline ‘Dress to Impress’.
The dialogue text in Figure 2 shows the starting point of the in-game aesthetic labor in
which the suggestion of Kim to “wear something dressier” emulates the requirements of the real aesthetic labor that set by the agent and clients of a model in Entwistle and Wissinger’s observation (2014). The necessity of aesthetic labor is reflected as the player involves “work to get work” such as impressing the potential clients (e.g photographers or fashion editors) first by doing casting or meeting that usually only takes five minutes to impress in real life.
After stepping to the spotlight through the first-ever doing photo-shoot with Kim and
demanded photographer, the player’s character is bumped into suggestion relating to body and gesture management (for impressing the photographer) in which this time the suggestion is dropped by Simon (who is already become the player’s virtual manager officially). The character of Simon Orsik is developed to accumulates and manage the works of celebrity that is assigned to his talent (player’s character) from numerous clients. The assigned works will appear as quests that must be completed to make significant progress in the game. At this point, the player relies on the calls from Simon to search, show, and guide them to the path of fame (Figure 3).
Figure 3. Simon Suggested Player’s Character to Follow Every Requirement Set by the Photographers. The Requirement Includes Posing Management Either for Photo-shoots, Appearances or Daily Activities Report. In such way, the Body Must be Fitted to Certain Form on-screen and for Public Exposure - Involving Player to One of the Attempts in Aesthetic and Glamour Labors.
And one more thing: better put on some new clothing to impress the photographers and media - they're always watching!
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Besides the character of the manager (Simon Orsik), the game also provides the character of publicist for the personal publicity management of the players. That character named Maria Holmes, who places the player’s character under her ‘watchful eyes’. Because the success of celebrity depends on the quality of excessive talks in media (Penfold-Mounced to Ibid, 2009. p.13), the player’s character needs the touch of Maria’s expertise in which she could maintain, represent, and protect the image of the player’s characters as a celebrity. Maria is also one of the game strategic interactions that are built by the game developers to deliver quest to players beside Simon and Kim Kardashian. The quest from Maria is usually a matter to build a network and persona/image that is more attractive, inspiring, and marketable for the current society in KK: H.
The suggestion of Maria Holmes in building networking depicts the finding of Angela McRobbie (2003) in which she emphasized that making the right connections and impressing the right people (such as the significant media partnership and photographers) might increase one’s opportunity in gaining and protecting prestigious work, and to involve in the highly networked fashion (in cultural/creative industry), one must be “always on display”. Continued by Entwistle and Wissinger (2014), the term “always on display” means that one has to concern about the way they are being seen at the right places as well as at the right time (p,790). In that case, the game manifests the need of careful self-representation, selfpromotion, good networking, and skillful social interaction by creating the character of publicist, manager, and experienced celebrity mentor that guide players to fulfill the demand of aesthetic labor in the sense of Entwistle and Wissinger (2014) and in a more realistic way. That condition of self-actualization through ‘working’ for fame in this game constitutes docility toward power. Power is operated over people through demand/requirement to be an “enterprising individual” and it can be deeply internalized by the participant themselves (Foucault in Entwistle & Wissinger; p. 787, 2014).
Thus in the reflection of aesthetic labor throughout game quest and interaction, the player may not sense that they are being controlled by the developer, particularly through the aforementioned non-playable characters. It is also due to power that can shift from corporate control and code into individual managed bodies (Foucault in Hestad, 2008), and it can be pushed down gently in the hierarchy and produces ritual of truth (Foucault, 1955). What makes power accepted, is simply by the fact that it is not merely sensed as a force that says no, but it “traverses and produces things, it induces pleasure, forms knowledge, produces
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discourse” (Foucault, 1955, p.62). On a mechanical scale, the produced discourse and induced pleasure within the game’s graphic and narrative level make the players feel as if they have more freedom to act while in fact, they are ‘trapped’ in the game system that makes them docile to the power.
2nd Docility Stage: Establishing Drive System
The notion of a system generally must include an organized scheme and method. It also includes rules as best as constructing barriers. According to Foucault (1955), barriers serve to enclose individuals, and in this manner individuals merely conditionally being controlled by the information that enters the perceptual system (p.72). The power holder in that case is capable to constitute barriers through discourse within the system they made. Discourse is imperative and can conduct individuals to follow certain rules in any act. Hence, there is no social influence among individuals besides the constitutive one, and by discourse, people are organized systematically to constitute the social process that resulted in benefits and rewards (Foucault, 1955, p 34, p.71). Herbert Blumer (1968, 143-4) points out the notion of “social system” as the reification in which the social system consists of “social actors interpreting the meanings in their social world and acting on that” (Foucault, 1955, p.29).
In a game system, the processes of the social system are embedded within the possibilities of play to comprehend the game “procedural rhetoric” (a form of persuasion through game practices) and to convey the meaning within the rules of play (Bogost, 2008). The game Kim Kardashian: Hollywood models a particular social world. It infuses meaning into gameplay through its rule sets (that presented by particular discourses) and the dynamics between the player’s character and the system they enable.
In the process of setting the main goal of climbing the Hollywood ladder up (from unlisted to A-list celebrity), both in-game written texts and in-game visual features of KK: H dominantly contain discourses that are promoting the value of celebrity (such as commoditized/objectified body and persona, network-building/social capital, and obsessing trend fashion style) to be manifested into in-game actions (such as posing for a magazine, walking on the catwalk, looking fashionable in parties, etc.) that are all limited by energy and time. That circumstance allows the virtual outfits (including make-up and hairstyles) to be defined as the main marketing objects of KK: H, and it could be proven by creating virtual outfits as most of the game rewards, and increasing style options. As such, the game practice is built to mystify
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players by a lifestyle of gaining virtual designer clothes and transforming the looks variously adapting to the particular events at last. At this stage of pursuing rewards of trendy virtual outfits, players intuition are challenged towards whether they want to spend real money for purchasing in-game outfits or spend more and more time completing the quests merely to collect the virtual outfits. This kind of reward is important for the players of celebrity roleplaying game in which the game frequently values superficial looks either through the appearance of its in-game written text or the function of in-game visual features.
As a whole and in regards to the digitalized practice of aesthetic and glamour labors, the drive system of KK: H could be visualized as a flow that consisting of four phases below (Figure 2):
1.
The Depletion and Renewal of Energy θ
As in real life, the work or any action in games consume energy as well. Single ingame energy cost 5 minutes of waiting which means the longer duration of work the player’s character takes, the more and more amount of energy is spent.
2.
The Immaterial Work of Celebrityb
Before starting the work, the player’s character is usually asked to do body customizing (in terms of self-branding or self-managing). This activity frequently leads to the desire to purchase more virtual outfits.
I
3.
The Time-limited in-game Work
To make the significant progress in KK: H, the players have to take all the assigned works that have various timers. The works must be completed before time is up to gain bonus cash, extra reward points, and gain more fans.
4.
The Rewards or Achievement 0∑
After all, every in-game activities / quests lead to rewards or social achievements for arousing the sense of player’s satisfaction. The dominant rewards in KK: H is provided in form of virtual outfits, while the dominant in-game social achievements are about beauty and fashion.
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Figure. 4. The Flow of KK: H Drive System
Gathering the ideas and the interrelated functions of energy, in-game actions, and achievements, depicts the real system of work in reality. In the physical world, any kind of works in the realm of labor drains a lot of energy. It takes mental and physical efforts to do something that is bound to corporate codes. Even the works of changing clothes, checking makeup, smiling, posing, charming, facing the camera, socializing, and waving that are displayed as the in-game actions could be sensed as too imperative since they involve the serious physical discipline and emotional management (Holla, 2015, p.4) as aesthetic and glamour labors in real life. KK: H manifests the difficulties of achieving a good performance in the workplace by developing the form of energy that limits the intensity of performing work actions and akin to wages rather than physical need.
Achievement in that case plays a role as the feedback after several tedious tapping and waiting actions for the in-game work phases. Mead (1938) stated that there is always a payoff for our efforts, and it impulses satisfaction to keep attaching value from a certain act (Mead in Hestad, 2008, p.31). Things can be either rewarding or aversive, so bodies could be naturally disciplined by reward and punishment in the line by what “discursive rational” tells to do (Foucault, 1995, p.17). Through the system of rewarding in KK: H, the Achievement feature seemingly function as the form of disciplinary tools in which its description is shaped
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by discourses that conduct a player’s character the way the celebrity world is supposed to work.
|
Achievement Type |
Achievement Descriptions |
Tapped Action |
Professional EventWork |
|
Vanity |
“You're ready for your close-up! AU it took was seven hours in make-up” |
|
Photoshpot Appearances |
|
The Look |
"Make-up is the photo shop of real life." |
|
Photpshoot Fashion Show Reality TV Show |
|
Fierce |
"Looking good never... looked so good." |
|
Fashion Show |
Figure 5. 3 of 16 Achievements Types in KK: H with Their Details that Indicate the Component of Aesthetic and Glamour Labors such as Fashion/Glam/Look/Network.
The list of Achievement names, descriptions, and the way they are earned (figure 5), are constructed by millennial vocabularies and tones to reach the target audience’s attention which is ‘young folks’. Through the discourse representing in-game actions, the game induces the value of a common female celebrity that should be elegant, good-looking, fashion icon, yet sociable, entertaining, funny, charming at the same time – all as player’s character’s persona. With the aforementioned persona, the player’s character not only have to impress the working partner, but other gazes online – arousing the necessity of pursuing people’s recognition in a form of calculated virtual fans that resemble the form of “likes”, “loves”, or ‘views’ in social media. That case reflects the concept of glamour labor as Entwistle (2016) stated that glamor laboring is about chasing “ever-receding deal of looking right, feeling right or being in the right circle” (p.150) in which the act of posting one’s glamour online “rising and falling by the metrics of likes, hearts, influence scores and views” that determined the success of celebrity these days (p.148).
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Moreover, in the macro sense, discourse seems to maintain the people with an underlying motive to lead people to benefits and avoid danger, while in the micro-sociological sense, individuals naturally tend to seek the positive ones and avoid cost/sanctions (Foucault, 1995, p.17). It draws upon the analogy that the player of a game naturally would seek as much as provided rewards as possible because the reward is the most reachable forms of satisfaction, and with the discourse (such as in the description of achievement features, actions, or the dialogue of non-playable characters) every play to achieve rewards is masked from the notion “persuasive” and covered by the sense of “playful”.
In the real social world, the interaction of body gestures that later shape the self is based on very specific physical surroundings and people that reward or punish the individual. That also become the consideration of KK: H game in which the form of movement/body gestures of the player’s character (Actions) in Figure 5 are determined the persona/image of their characters and that all synchronized to achieve the rewards that the game has offered to engage players even more. Hereinafter, the combination of several elements such as ranks, working quest, timer, energy, actions, and rewards constitute the higher system in which it is emerging out the social practice such as aesthetic and glamour labors in the KK: H game case. Every barrier or limitation through time, energy, the kind of actions, and type of social achievements leads to disciplinary function because they put terms and conditions on the physical performance of individuals. That is to say, during the progress-making in KK: H, the players are performing nothing more and nothing less than a finite knowable range of actions that are allowed by the rules of aesthetic and glamour labors.
3rd Docility Stage: Applying Constant Surveillance
Surveillance is considered as one of the most operative disciplinary tools in enforcing individuals to subjection (Beheshti & Shafieyan, p.6, 2016). It produces useful bodies to fit and operate the system normally. It acts as a key part in making the process of disciplinary or docility easier (Foucault in Hestard, 2008, p.12). Digital games, particularly, online games represent the enclosures of surveillance in which each word typed, each nudge on the joystick, and each push of the d-pad, are translated into codes, and thus the play is made as bait for surveillance (Whitson & Bart, 2010, p.4). The interesting analytical issue here is not whether the agents of surveillance lurk as the shadows from the physical or real world, but how the in-game apparatus of surveillance proposes a new form of attention and
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watchfulness in the current everyday lives of people. Digital online games like KK: H uses and explores the surveillance capacities at both the mechanical and representational scales that draw from the dominant surveillance culture these days which is social media (represented by the ‘News Feed’ feature as the resemblance of Twitter).
In the exposition of KK: H, the player’s character is warned by the appearance of media that are always watching and ready to post positive or negative judgment as of the feedback for the player’s character activities, especially work. Also, since every single move of a celebrity is always followed by a camera, their performance always resulted in an online publication. The game then increases player’s awareness of the presence of media by creating the character of paparazzi that is “following celebrity for good stories and good photos” and constantly displayed when the player’s character is still recognized as the newcomer in the fashion scene (Figure 4.1). Paparazzi in KK: H is used as the perfect momentum for novice celebrity’s exposure attempt. By doing appearances or works with the famous celebrity network, paparazzi would slowly recognize the association and potential of the player’s character in the cultural industry. Maria and Simon then re-advice player’s character to be “always-on” because the good photos of celebrities are not only the goldmine for paparazzi but also could boost the number of fans for celebrities as well. At this juncture, the value of aesthetics such as ‘always on’ in physical places have to be performed in a manner that player’s character embodied the work of body/surficial maintenance and the beauty standard beyond the professional life.
Moreover, various fictional media networks derived from in-game fashion magazines such as Trendstyle (@TrendStyleMag), streaming companies such as PopFlix (@PopFlix), and entertainment news sources such as Ray Power Show (@Starnews_Ray) and Hiro Nakayama (@Hiro_Nakayama). The media networks above are the ever-present and watching media that always report positive or negative feedback on the player’s character’s professional (work) activities, especially the work with fashion media partnership (such as Metropolitan, PopGlam, Muse, and Glamm magazines), and personal (date) activities. Every feedback could impact on the player’s character’s fan base and celebrity status depending on how the player effectively navigates the depletion and renewal of their character’s energy for the completion of the quest. As far as it could be observed, the feedback puts weight on assessing the ‘looks’ of the player’s character – evoking the need of customizing the style/looks of game character as frequently as possible to the players. It is also due to good
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feedback that could also be generated by routinely changing and purchasing outfits from Kustomize feature as the media in KK: H is constructed to be noticed with the fashion move of player’s character.
In that case, the fundamental element of fame is about the need to perform the effective self-representation (that always presented by fashion styles) and the ability to distribute that representation among necessary media platforms – leaving celebrity as the glamour laborer who crafts, edit and filter their image online. As a result, the possible subject of getting greater attention such as celebrity, would ‘break their legs’ to shape their image by showing off their best beauty, fashion, or body fitness to bring themselves to the market, and that method could be called as glamour labor if it is extended for the potential online performance. Kim Kardashian, for example, has been called fashion icon by Vogue editor, Balmain designer, and H&M collaborators as the departure from the role of glamour in the past in which she always did the effortless work of presenting herself beautifully and fashionably for media consumption insofar (Entwistle to Lindig, 2016, p.146). Kim’s awareness of the importance in shaping or crafting an image for gaining media and public attention is further enforced towards players through the gameplay of KK: H not only by the presence of news feed feature as the tool of surveillance but also by the judgmental narrative dialogue of non-playable characters (such as fans and rivals) about superficial/looks/fashion.
By the presence of fans and rivals who are putting the weight of their assessments or critical views to player’s character‘s superficial in the KK: H game, it could lead players to the awareness of an avidly surveilled internet in which every image or looks that the celebrity presented either among the game or physical spaces are circulated to people’s gaze and then generated to benefit or cost. According to Goffman’s (1991) theoretical consideration on the individual and their behavioral motives, individuals cannot present their selves favorably without the conceptualized audience or someone else to observe (Goffman in Hestad, 2008, p.41). Similarly to that, the player then is expected to put their attention on the way their game character should be presented aesthetically and glamour in which it is the common strategized manner among celebrity labor. In that case, the in-game Hollywood aims to normalize the idea of the player’s character as a ’connective commodity’, product placement, a networked platform for commercializing, social spending, and interaction (Gallagher, 2017, p.190).
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4th Stage to Docility: Enforcing Normalization
When there is an awareness of being watched, the individual starts to modify and normalize their behavior and actions accordingly to the regulation in a system (Foucault, 1995). That is to say, the application of constant surveillance in the disciplinary method has resulted in the normalization that is the final goal of the power holders. Normalization dehumanized an individual to accept and adjust themselves to such standards as a matter to be part of the system (Foucault in Bahesti and Shafieyan, 2006, p.6).
In the KK: H game, such a process of normalization to aesthetic and glamour labors is applied by making the player’s character and non-playable character normally devoted to the beauty standards that are set by media. It is the typical way of celebrity games that tend to empower players to perform the work of aspiring fame with beauty as the key. As a game-oriented to female audiences, KK: H manifests the trends in the broader culture of celebrity through narratives that emphasize the importance of cultivating a unique individual style to be accepted to the system of networked media. The player’s character of KK: H is constantly told by non-playable characters that they have a unique look, although the options to customize the player’s character’s body shape, age, or physical abilities do not exist. The creativity of a player can be expressed but limited to face shape, hairstyle, eye color, and clothing from the selected real-life brands. As a result, every playable-characters adhere to the narrow Western ideal of attractiveness (such as being skinny, tall, having curves galore, and obsessively fashionable) that enforcing such norms, highlighting the limitations of personalization and customization.
Moreover in terms of normalizing aesthetic and glamour labors, KK: H reveals the work of personalizing self by customizing fashion style or look while masking the work of body maintenance such as dieting, beauty rituals, fitness, cosmetic surgery, and enhancement into the infrequently appeared narrative dialogue of non-playable characters. Body maintenance is the most prominent requirements of aesthetic labors and media standards in the realm of glamour labor (Entwistle and Wissinger; 2014, 2016), yet making body maintenance as the requirement of gameplay is still taboo to be visible because in real life it is commonly taken to the extreme (Harvey, p.14, 2008). Therefore, the activities of mixing, matching, and collecting myriad branded outfits are revealed as the prominent gameplay in KK: H. and enforced through frequently appeared narratives within work and date activities (Figure 6).
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Figure 6. Either in Dating or Working The Player’s Character Will be Judged to “Pay Attention What You’re Wearing for !”
The player’s character is never assigned to a quest in dieting or doing plastic surgery since they are created with the face that always ready on-screen and the body of a Western model type that globally ‘bankable’, especially with the lucrative associations such as Kardashians and their relatives. However, such normalization to those requirements of aesthetic and glamour labors become one of the possible successful strategies to leads player to visit Kustomize (Wardrobe feature) as frequent as possible, tap the feminized action repetitively, collect in-game soft currencies, and at last back to back purchase the major ingame celebrity enhancement such as virtual outfits. This is articulated in Morrison’s study (2016) that stated the dominant discourses in KK: H assigns power to notions of idealized beauty and brand loyalty although within a symbolic economy in a virtual space (p.244). Additionally, with the aforementioned entertaining narrative that persistently involves the player to the system, the game empowers the player to defend the logic of beauty for beauty’s sake because in reality, the dominant aesthetic logic determines the value of high-end celebrity.
After all of the four stages that the collected in-game written text and visual features passed through, the aesthetic and glamour labors of Kim Kardashian (as the representative subject of common celebrity in this study) indeed are manifested systematically following the order of docility. The analysis of collected in-game written text and visual features based on the order of docility in Michel Foucault’s sense elucidates the way the game is developed as a matter to engage players to the game by making them docile indirectly following the rules of aesthetic and glamour labors. The manifestation of aesthetic and glamour labors in the KK: H game is beneficial to engage players to virtual outfits due to the rules within them aroused the urge of players to possess virtual outfits even more, and the way of possessing the
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referred items could be viewed throughout the player’s gaming experience shared in Facebook public groups.
From KK: H to Facebook Public Groups: the Engagement of In-game Kim Kardashian’s Aesthetic and Glamour Labors for Players
Considering the forefront conceptual thought of Jean Baudrillard related to the game, each mechanical elements of the game are entirely what it calls as the art of simulation (Baudrillard in Crogan, 2007, p.2). By the mechanical pattern and scheme of the real world, KK: H covered the subjects and objects in reality with a lack of original ‘aura’, yet that representation could be willingly accepted as faithful things to players. In Baudrillard’s sense (2005), the game as KK: H is the “horizon of programmed reality” or the simulation of the real celebrity world that accumulates the unceasing possibilities and glues players to the screen – turning the game into the highest level of simulation, hyperreality (Baudrillard in Coulter, 2007, p.5).
Hyperreality is marked when people gradually replace the natural world by a lot of technology and self-referential signs (BK, 1997, p. 101). While the debatable hyperreality concept from a game commonly centers on the blurring reality and fiction that focus on simulations of the “real” world, what is especially interesting this study has found is that how players of KK: H are able to “make use” the available data or game attributes to determine new courses of action that have not been defined in the rules of the game. It is supported by Coulter’s (2007) interpretation of Baudrillard’s thought about gaming as a passion that stated the more players reach inside the game (attempting to escape from the world of rationality or seeking for stress-relieved device), the world of the game could infect society outside the game (p.3).
For example, as the cause of the manifestation of aesthetic and glamor labors that making the notion of ‘beauty’ as the default in player’s mind, there are thousands of players of KK: H normalizes the work of pursuing and showing beauty in other online spaces such as Twitter, Instagram, Google+ and Facebook that notably are the platforms to connect to others by the authentic identity – infecting the self-referential attributes with more digitalized essence. Among other real online social space, Facebook is the most utilized by KK: H players to connect players as communities, and that situation draws the immersive players to the surface. Immersive players refer to those who enjoy living through the eyes of their game
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characters either in real or virtual lives. The immersive players tend to carry the attributes of their in-game character as the representation of their “real” selves. The players of KK: H use their well-dressed game characters’ pictures as profile pictures for their Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or Google+ accounts. Also, their names are added with the word ‘KKH’, and their identities are created based on their occupation or status in the game either for the sake of being recognized by other players or bringing the sense of belonging in a community.
After all, the involvement of KK: H game characters in player’s social media comes intending to satisfy particular needs either for their character in a game (gaining wardrobe enhancement) or as a matter to foster social capital in form of public engagement (Dalisay et.al, 2014, p. 5) because the social aspect is the most favorite part of a game (Perez, 2016, p.11). Through the observation of various Facebook public groups (such as ‘KK: H THE SOCIALITES’, ‘Kim Kardashian: Hollywood Game’, ‘KK: H Exclusive’, ‘Kim Kardashian: Hollywood Community & Tips’, and ‘KKH PLAYERS’), the members of each groups share the similar patterns of social activities that build around the need of in-game beauty enhancement and recognition. One of the activities is hunt for virtual outfits in which it is optimizing the function of the ‘gift friend’ feature.
By utilizing the power of Facebook circle, the players could create a posting of giftrequest that is shared in a group home page to achieve gifts from other players – expecting that kind of posting could function as a shortcut to digitalized glamour in living the game life. Indeed by the existence of the gift friends feature, no virtual or real cash, K-stars, in-game diamonds, and energy should be spent to be fashionable, yet the player needs to count on their skill of building friendship and creating posting(s) or comment(s) that entice other players to “gift-away”. Another post to seek for the character’s enhancement is also shown in a manner of asking for virtual outfit procurement advice. In that case, virtual outfits become nothing less than currencies that are aroused by the requirements of aesthetic and glamour labors. These laborers force conspicuous consumption on fashion that makes the player willingly work beyond the game for the sake of greater good customized character’s appearance. That is in line with Messinger and his colleagues (2009), who identified virtual consumption as the important driver that influences personal and virtual social behavior in the interest of the general process of avatar construction (Nagy & Koles, 2014, p.9).
Despite seeking their character’s beauty enhancement through the act of asking for virtual outfits and advice that affect the gameplay, the players also utilize Facebook public
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groups as a platform to seek attention on their well-customized characters. To make that aim more interactive and enthusiastic, the players usually propose several types of postings that encompass ‘Trend’ challenge, competition, or OOTD (Outfits of the Day) to invite numerous players to comment and take the fashion style as the major concern. Although almost all these attention-seeking activities are not part of the gameplay, the players carry the value of in-game aesthetic and glamour labors such as customizing and personalizing looks and accumulating social capital (the likes, the friends' request, or the compliments). Some of the activities even require physical effort to dress up the real body and the consistency in following dress codes.
Through the case of using a community to achieve the enhancement and attention on player’s character appearance, it could be sensed that the players consider their characters as the living units that truly need virtual outfits to live by the in-game labor. In Baudrillard’s sense (1991), their game characters are no longer considered as their representations or imitative, but as themselves in reality. Avatars or game character embodied conceptions of the user’s self that can be thought of as the vehicles used to communicate with other virtual residents (Nagy & Koles, 2014, p.7). Through their game characters and associated profiles, the residents of the virtual world can establish one’s virtual identities which can be molded according to their expectations and desires.
Moreover, KK: H players do not only create specific virtual identities for themselves but also construct their fantasies and aspirations on their ideal selves to the digital entities (Nagy & Koles, 2014). For example, even within Facebook public groups, the KK: H players still absorbed to their role as a good-looking public figure in a competitive celebrity game world, and when the fellow players gather as a community, they maximize the enjoyment from playing together – creating their own culture based on the value they admire (passions) and rules that the game develops. By using fashion/beauty features as the attributes to extend the enjoyment and as the community’s major discussions, the KK: H players have followed the in-game aesthetic and glamour labors that are built for their embodied experience – presenting it as part of the ordinary world of everyday experience, and it mystifyingly engages player physically to game prior commodity.
With that form of engagement that realized in Facebook public groups, the player of KK: H is eventually meet the game developer’s expectation to have a great interest in maintaining their digital illusions as similar as De Masi stated “The world going mobile means you need
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to bring the whole world into your mobile product” (Henry via Inc.com, 2016). If the player is not such a type of the long-run inhabitants, then they still are remembered simply as an individual who had caught up in the obsession of computational age “the lack of distinction between the real and the virtual” (Baudrillard in Coulter, 2007, p. 92).
CONCLUSION
From the theoretical and conceptual accounts of Michel Foucault’s docile body, Jean Baudrillard’s hyper-reality along with several references to game study, it could be summarized that the idealized discourses about beauty which is the groundwork of the virtual construction of aesthetic and glamor labors in the clear digital world (such as KK: H game) promises players the opportunity to escape from the turmoil of corporeality and its imperfections – trading them in with virtual outfits for the celebrity ladder and the player’s digital consumption.
The body of the player’s character is fixed to a forever-perfect computational entity with a battery (bar of energy) that is drained and must be recharged. Instead, it is the physical body of the player that is disciplined – commanded to leave and return adjusting the in-game time limitation. In this way, the players immediately possess all the required characteristics to achieve fame such as a fit body, type of role model with conventional beauty, work with ‘important’ people in the cool industry, and the ability to acquire as many as luxury outfits. Hence, the characteristics enable them to compete with qualified others in a very superficial celebrity world that requires them to possess feminized professional skills such as charming, smiling, dazzling the crowd, posing, checking make-up, changing wardrobe, and seeking for the perfect light – all for impressing clients and media.
Through these skills, the player’s character gains wealth as well as social attention (in the form of fans). In other words, the player’s character resembles Kim Kardashian herself who raises to fame by building a successful marketable brand in an ever-expanding industry that licenses the superficial-based activities and conspicuous consumption. Selling the body and self via personal branding is the route to celebrity success that Kim and other celebrities have shown, and it is framed in KK: H game as an entirely meritocratic process.
Precisely, the practices of aesthetic and glamor labors forces players to look more closely at the gameplay that illuminates the omnipresence yet publicly invisible celebrity works. For instance, in the digital settings of KK: H, the player may understand the immaterial
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work of celebrity (such as the work of self-branding through body-customizing) before ultimately seeing the final product on screen and in a magazine. Concomitantly, this also means that the players of KK: H currently have larger access to celebrities, for they are able to view celebrity’s work behind the scenes and in their daily lives – associating celebrity as the display who “always on”.
Furthermore, it is important to note that the manifestation of aesthetic and glamour labors is not merely facilitated by the expansion of celebrity culture, yet also by the shift in the practical and conceptual boundaries between play (product) and finance (benefit). KK: H constructs narratives where the player’s character is doing the work of the aesthetic and glamour labors, while simultaneously promoting the player’s character back to players themselves as consumers. Kim and other non-playable characters, in that case, try to validate the injected value of celebrity to the gameplay that makes the player become a normal embodied individual who chases the celebrity status with the up-to-date procurement for beauty enhancement. At the juncture of the normalization process, a player is trained and produces a docile body that is not economically useful to them but the power holders.
To this end, the bodies of the players might not be required to pose for magazine photoshoot, but their hands move their character to do the practice, and their brains work for the best game strategy. Also with the fact that the players work beyond the game (such as in Facebook public groups) either for the in-game progress sake or sensing the neighborliness around the fellow players, proves that they are ordered, disciplined, and absorbed by and to the game promotional value.
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