Hey, everyone. Long-time lurker, first-time poster. My name is Alex
Lukens. I am writing because I’ve been talking with Lisa for the past
few months about some research that I have done toward my
master’s degree in Film/Media Studies from Emory University. I’ve
been a huge fan of the Monster Rancher series since it first came
out and have been following it ever since. Recently I completed
work on my master’s degree and defended my master’s thesis. I’m
posting because my master’s thesis directly dealt with the original
Monster Rancher and the disc swapping gameplay mechanic.

My overall thesis is about gimmicks and how they repurpose certain
architectures, be they literal structures, code, modes of
engagement, cultural mores, etc. The thesis has two chapters. The
first kind of lays the groundwork for such a mode of thinking by
looking at the films of William Castle, notable movie huckster
showman and how the bulk of his film output relies upon the idea
of “something extra” to his movies. So, I focus on his film The
Tingler—a very schlocky, interesting film that postulates that all
human fear generates a literal creature at the base of the human
spine that pathologist Dr. Warren Chapin dubs a “tingler”. He
postulates that a tingler grows as fear increases and the only way to
get rid of one’s tingler is to scream. He gets a chance to test his
hypothesis when he meets a mute woman that cannot scream.
After inducing hallucinations in her (in the first onscreen use of
LSD) he successfully extracts her tingler—a lobster-like creature.
The tingler then gets loose in a movie theater full of spectators and
the screen goes black. Now, at this moment during screenings of
the film, the projectionist or some other designated person would
hit a button that would link with buzzers under the seats of the
patrons watching The Tingler, giving them a shock on the butt—in a
way joining the onscreen theater space with the theater space
patrons watched from. This if of course a pretty simplified look at
the work Castle did and he employed various gimmicks with his
films throughout the course of his career.

My ultimate argument in setting up Castle as case study is that he
literally augments part of the space of the movie theater in a way
that makes the theater inextricable from the experience of the film
(or at the very least in some referential way, there is no way to
mention The Tingler without mentioning the buzzers under the
seats). I come to argue that these particular gimmicks produce films
or video games or whatever pieces of media that are necessarily
generated in the experience of them rather than in the object (film,
video game, etc.) itself.

I use Monster Rancher as my second example, citing not only the
fact that the Playstation console allows for the swapping of discs as
a sanctioned act, but that Monster Rancher uses this sanctioned act
in a way that it has never been conceptualized before. Similar to
Castle’s film, to discuss the original Monster Rancher is to discuss
this peculiar gameplay mechanic. The bulk of research I was looking
into was about this CD read process that active fan engagement
that stood as a testament to trying to reverse engineer something
that you’re given data about from a game’s algorithm, whereas
typically it’s the other way around and programmers are trying to
discern how to build the algorithm. I think Monster Rancher is
interesting in that its very way of operating hints to players and
researchers alike how it was made.

So, in short, I kind of discuss how this augment a player’s area of
play in that there is the obvious scavenger hunt to attain different
monsters but also a separate scavenger hunt for discs and data.
There is a sphere of play for Monster Rancher that exists even when
at the used CD store trying to find discs that actually generate the
thing you need. And even further, Monster Rancher produces this
generative environment where you are able to burn and generate
your own media specifically for trying to understand how the
algorithm works as well make monsters.

I think that Monster Rancher does something drastically different
from other games in terms of how it incorporates analog play as
well digital play as necessary parts of its construction.
All of that to say that I’ve written this thesis and a good portion of it
is about Monster Rancher.

If you’re interested in reading it, it is available for free download
here: https://etd.library.emory.edu/view/record/pid/emory:d7n8z

I have to say that Lisa was incredibly gracious and helpful to me in
my research as well my traditional combing-through of the
intriguing research that has been done as well viewing this forum as
a sort of testament to how interesting this series is, in that people
are still producing new research about a game mechanic that is this
old at this point as well as the research into the various other areas
that you guys are interested in. I just think it’s an incredibly cool
game and I really value what I’ve read here in pursuit of my own
work. I owe everybody on here a great deal of gratitude to that end.
I really value this site not only in terms of the work that people do
but also because of the need to credit people for work they have
done and the positive environment that has been created and
maintained.

As a general proviso, a lot of the information may have been kind of
boiled down to basics as I attended a program that is very film-
centric, that doesn’t necessarily understand how video games work
or even that something is peculiar/interesting within that realm. A
lot of what you read will be stuff that is old hat that you’ve known
for years and years. This is kind of a result of trying to
communicate my interests to a group of people that don’t
necessarily know what I’m talking about. Hopefully there is still
useful/interesting stuff in there.

There are two interviews in the thesis as well, if you’re interested in
those. One interview is with Lisa, which is kind of an amalgam of e-
mails that were sent back and forth. I also interviewed Terry Castle,
who is William Castle’s daughter and kind of heir to his weirdness
throne. The thesis would not have been possible without either of
those people.

So, in closing, I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who has
submitted to this board, because even though I’ve never been active
contributor, I’ve definitely read a great deal of what you guys have
been posting and what you’ve been interested in, in relation to the
game series. I really value what you’ve done here and are
continuing to do. If you have any questions, comments, concerns,
hate mail, etc. feel free to send me an e-mail at
alexlukens@gmail.com or respond to
this post.

Again, I really appreciate what you do.

Alex Lukens

Great job, bruh. Very inspirational aha.
And ah the Tingler, old film, saw a review about it.
And of course Monster Rancher 1 and 2, sadly very
great underated games. Anyhow congratulations!

Glad we could help you! Thanks for posting the link to your paper, I'm sure someone will have questions for you.

It is rather amazing to think that the first MR game was released over 15 years ago, and that we're still working out all of the details! Each of the main games has been such a massive project that there's no way would could have accomplished what we have so far without a strong, dedicated community.

Most of the games in the MR series offer incredible value for the money in terms of endless playability. The genius part is that they are able to be engaging after hundreds of hours of play. The community itself, through support of tournaments and other special events has also added a lot to everyone's enjoyment of the games. Thanks!

Ok, that's interesting. Interesting to consider the game kind of breaking the boundry between the game world and reality.

One point meantions, however, that turning off and opening the console are part of the game. (p53) The opening of the console to switch disks I understand, but how does turning off the console affect anything?

Anyhow interesting thesis. It even shows me, despite well over a decade of playing, more reasoning on why I enjoy the game so much (my favorite game series).

You did your master's thesis on Monster Rancher.
This is the greatest thing I've ever heard or ever
will hear. My life is complete. Thank you.
Dammit, thank you so much.

Hey, everyone. Thank you so much for the comments back. Also,
thank you to the moderators for correctly formatting what I wrote.
Apparently, I'm still a Luddite when it comes to knowing how to
input text in a field...

Also, apologies for the long time in getting back.

In reference to Shen's question-- I think what I'm hoping to get at
by saying that turning on and off the console as a part of the game
is that Monster Rancher forces them to become a part of the game,
though they are traditionally not. What I want to get at is that going
elsewhere (around the CD rack, to the CD store) doesn't end the
game. Instead, if you're looking for something in relation to
Monster Rancher, you're still playing Monster Rancher.

Ultimately, just that since the "game" also exists on discs that you
don't even own, seeking them out necessarily becomes part of the
game.

Hopefully I articulated that well enough. Shrug.

Thanks for replying, Alex! It was really great to be able to help you with your project.