Surviving Fallout 4: A Design Fiction

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Pufal Marcel Tanenbaum Theresa J.
2016 DiGRA/FDG '16 - Abstract Proceedings of the First International Joint Conference of DiGRA and FDG

 

Playful Fabrication: Speculative Game Designs for 3D Printers

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Tanenbaum Karen Tanenbaum Theresa J.
2016 DiGRA/FDG '16 - Abstract Proceedings of the First International Joint Conference of DiGRA and FDG

 

“Its’a Me, Mario!”: Costumed Gaming’s Effects on Character Identification

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Tanenbaum Theresa J. Crenshaw Nicole Tanenbaum Karen
2016 DiGRA/FDG '16 - Abstract Proceedings of the First International Joint Conference of DiGRA and FDG

 

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Gamer: Reframing Subversive Play in Story-Based Games

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Tanenbaum Theresa J.
2014 DiGRA '13 - Proceedings of the 2013 DiGRA International Conference: DeFragging Game Studies

Much like books have “implied readers” and films have “implied viewers”, games have “implied players”. The ways in which these implied players are constructed have material implications for how games are designed and studied. In this paper I explore a pervasive narrative about the ways in which players seek to subvert the desires of game designers and storytellers. This narrative of the subversive player has informed extensive research and design in both commercial games and scholarly interactive narrative research. I argue that addressing game designs to an implied subversive player intentionally misrepresents the complex processes of meaning making that occur during play, creating an artificial conflict between the player and the designer that is harmful to the development of rich narrative in games. I propose a way of understanding subversive play as part of the process of building the literacies needed by the player to better enact the narratives of the designer, rather than subvert them.