Blizzlike, Game Plus, and Funservers: An Analysis of World of Warcraft Private Servers

From ‘Silly’ to ‘Scumbag’: Reddit Discussion of a Case of Groping in a Virtual Reality Game

This paper examines key discussion points among VR-interested Reddit users regarding a controversial case of VR groping reported in 2016. Through a mixed-methods approach that includes qualitative thematic analysis and quantitative coding, this paper identifies four key discussion themes: 1) Conceptualization—what is the act of groping? 2) Ethics—what is (un)acceptable about the act? 3) Action—what should be done about it? and 4) Vision— what does this act mean for the future of VR? Within these themes, most comments were dedicated to the questions of whether the act of groping in VR constitutes sexual assault or sexual harassment, whether it is the individual’s responsibility to respond to this act, and whether this act causes harm. These results assist in the formation of a framework for understanding and addressing concerns related to unwanted sexual behaviours in VR and other digital play spaces.

“Sometimes I Like Killing as a Treat”: Children’s Transgressive Play in Minecraft

Children’s play in digital spaces is often discussed in popular discourse and in academia in terms of what kind of effect it may be having on children. One area of concern is the relationship between ‘violent videogames’ and real-world violence. However, little is known about how children actually play in digitally mediated play spaces including Minecraft which offers sandbox style free-play and does not necessarily involve any prescribed violence. We have collected recordings of 6-8-year-old children’s leisure time Minecraft play and used a taxonomic system of play types to describe the range of play observed. Some observed play did not fit neatly into any of the play types. In this paper we describe one such instance of play which involved unprovoked violence and draw on a range of literature in the process of conceptualizing this play as Transgressive. This paper provides much needed knowledge of children’s Minecraft play as it occurs in situ.

People@Meeple: “it’s a community thing”

Understanding Player Elimination in Boardgames as a Form of Permadeath

A History of Voice Interaction in Games

Digitising Boardgames: Issues and Tensions

In this paper, we discuss the different ways in which modern European boardgames (“Eurogames”) are converted for digital play. We review digitised versions of three popular tabletop boardgames: Puerto Rico, Agricola and Ascension. Using these examples, we demonstrate the tension between the interaction metaphor of the original analogue medium and the metaphor of a digital game. We describe the importance of housekeeping chores to gameplay and position them as a form of articulation work, which is typically hidden by digital implementations. Further, we demonstrate the types of information that are created through digital play and discuss how this influences game play of both digital and physical boardgames.

Everyone’s a Winner at Warhammer 40K (or, at least not a loser)

Warhammer 40,000 (W40K) is a non-digital strategy war-game involving the tactical manoeuvring of miniature figurines on a 6' by 4' tabletop. These figurines are painstakingly assembled, painted and often modified by players to accord with the game's backstory. Our research explores the ongoing success of W40K in the face of ubiquitous and pervasive computer technologies and presents the results of post-match interviews with players. One element of the W40K experience that we found striking was the capacity for players who lost matches to rationalise their failures into a narrative of success, one that underplays the importance of winning and prioritizes other aspects of the W40K experience. Drawing on Paul’s (2012) notion of rhetoric, wordplay and games, we argue that the modelling and painting, time and money constraints, engagement with W40K's themes and narratives, and the battle itself can be linked to the post-match accounts given by players in which they construct narratives of success and portray themselves as ‘winners’ even though they lost the battle.

The Pretence Awareness Contexts and Oscillating Nature of Coaching Frames

Drawing on data from three studies, this paper argues that the learning and teaching of player coaching is an important frame of temporary motivation for players during gameplay. Furthermore, play framed temporarily as a coaching experience exhibits what Fine (1983) called the oscillating nature of engrossment and operates under the same kind of pretence awareness context (Glaser & Strauss, 1964) that he described in relation to role-playing games. We argue the teaching of a new game, or parts of a game, is a fleeting yet recurring experience, with participants oscillating between regular mundane everyday play and coaching new players. The coach and other players are often expected to continue play as if they had not seen any strategically important information during their time coaching and learning. This is of course a pretence, the implications of which are explored.