Civic and political transgressions in videogames: the views and experiences of the players


Santos Hugo Saldanha Lucinda Pinto Marta Ferreira Pedro
2018 DiGRA Nordic '18: Proceedings of 2018 International DiGRA Nordic Conference

Video games are commonly considered transgressive for providing the context for excessive violence, hypersexualized imaginaries, cheating, bullying and other sorts of inadequate behavior. Transgressions can be linked to struggles for social change, and video games present and represent ideological materializations, and therefore it is possible to look politically at the transgressions that different video games challenge players to negotiate. To explore the civic dimensions of video games, data was collected in a series of ten workshops involving 73 participants, in mixed groups of students, researchers and lecturers of various fields of study. Analyses allowed us to identify four types of transgression - i) the transgression of linear narratives; ii) the transgression of the ideologically aseptic idea of truth; iii) the transgression of the idea of free choice and merit and iv) transgression of individualism and the myth of “Other” - that were present in the experience of players, and that can contribute to understand how video games can contribute to the promotion of meaningful civic learning experiences.

 

21st Century Soul Guides: Leveraging Myth and Ritual for Game Design


Rusch Doris C.
2018 DiGRA Nordic '18: Proceedings of 2018 International DiGRA Nordic Conference

This paper takes its departure from the observation that myth and ritual once served the important psychological function of helping us come to grips with the Givens of Existence: death, isolation, freedom of choice, and meaninglessness. It explains the transformational and meaning-generating power of myth from an existential, archetypal and depth psychology perspective and proposes games as potent vehicles for myth in the 21st century. It provides suggestions on how game designers can become modern Soul Guides by accessing their unconscious to birth viable symbols and create emotionally resonating experiences for others, and how they can glean inspiration from different types of rituals to inform mythic gameplay experiences that can contribute to a meaningful life.

 

The Asylum Seekers Larp: The Positive Discomfort of Transgressive Realism


Bjørkelo Kristian A. Jørgensen Kristine
2018 DiGRA Nordic '18: Proceedings of 2018 International DiGRA Nordic Conference

This paper explores positive-negative experiences (Hopeametsä 2008; Montola 2010) and transgressive realism (Bjørkelo 2019) through discomfort experienced in a live-action role-playing game about asylum seekers. Asylsøkjarane (The Asylum Seekers) was designed to create an uncomfortable, but meaningful experience for the participants who play asylum seekers and police officers who interview them. Discomfort is creating through stressful social and physical conditions which seek not to simulate, but stand in for the stress experienced in the real world process. In the debrief following the two playthroughs the players describe their discomfort and how it relates to real world issues, which we relate to the concept of play-external seriousness (Jørgensen 2014).

 

A Universe Divided: Texts vs. Games in The Elder Scrolls


Jansen Dennis
2018 DiGRA Nordic '18: Proceedings of 2018 International DiGRA Nordic Conference

In this paper, I seek to understand how online fan-made archives function as spaces wherein fans of The Elder Scrolls construct its narrative universe together, using the web-based archive The Imperial Library as a primary tool that facilitates a certain type of fannish engagement known as ‘archontic fandom’. I see fannish discussions surrounding the canonical status of several works within the universe as an entry point into one of the most important underlying controversies of The Elder Scrolls as a shared idea between its fans; that is, the tension between the ‘universe-as-games’ and the ‘universe-as-texts’. Some fans give primacy to the written texts found within the universe, and neglect the universe-as-games in their world-building discussions. Consequentially, The Imperial Library’s paratextual functioning and overt emphasis on texts come to strengthen the position of the universe-as-texts in relation to the universe-as-games.

 

Paralysing Fear: Player Agency Parameters in Horror Games


Boonen Casper S. Mieritz Daniel
2018 DiGRA Nordic '18: Proceedings of 2018 International DiGRA Nordic Conference

The horror video game genre is dedicated to building suspense and scaring its players. One of the ways in which it achieves this goal is through the manipulation of the player’s agency. With this paper, we seek to examine and identify elements used to manipulate the agency of the player in horror video games, to see how they can be used to evoke horror and dread within the player. To this purpose, a qualitative humanistic approach has been applied, through the analysis of six horror games. Our results indicate several common themes, found in the elements used to manipulate player agency. Based on these themes, we have developed an Agency Parameter Model, illustrating a hierarchical relationship between different categories used to manipulate agency. At the core of the model are three overarching categories: Player Character Parameters, System Parameters, and Player Parameters.

 

“There Are No Women and They All Play Mercy”: Understanding and Explaining (the Lack of) Women’s Presence in Esports and Competitive Gaming


Ruotsalainen Maria Friman Usva
2018 DiGRA Nordic '18: Proceedings of 2018 International DiGRA Nordic Conference

In this paper, we explore women’s participation in esports and competitive gaming. We will analyze two different types of research material: online questionnaire responses by women explaining their reluctance to participate in esports, and online forum discussions regarding women’s participation in competitive Overwatch. We will examine the ways in which women’s participation – its conditions, limits and possibilities – are constructed in the discussions concerning women gamers, how women are negotiating their participation in their own words, and in what ways gender may affect these processes. Our findings support those made in previous studies concerning esports and competitive gaming as fields dominated by toxic meritocracy and hegemonic (geek) masculinity, and based on our analysis, women’s room for participation in competitive gaming is still extremely limited, both in terms of presence and ways of participation.

 

NieR (De)Automata: Defamiliarization and the Poetic Revolution of NieR: Automata


Gerrish Grace
2018 DiGRA Nordic '18: Proceedings of 2018 International DiGRA Nordic Conference

This paper employs the 2017 game NieR: Automata as a case study to explore how Russian Formalist poetics, particularly the concept of “defamiliarization,” can operate as a mode of subversion in games. By focusing on the technical devices available to the genre, and the unique ways those devices can be manipulated and subverted for “poetic” effect, this paper also demonstrates how defamiliarization challenges the boundaries that attempt to define the genre’s textual and narrative capabilities, and in doing so, promotes its ongoing evolution. As such, this framework is innately useful to the field of digital game study, as it diverges from the common practice of searching for concrete definitions of the genre, and instead focuses on the generative analysis of its formal elements, and the mutable potential of what games can achieve.

 

Spectating development and other backer perspectives on games crowdfunding


Tyni Heikki
2018 DiGRA Nordic '18: Proceedings of 2018 International DiGRA Nordic Conference

During the last decade, crowdfunding has become a significant new means to fund creative productions. Rather than being simply about acquiring the funded product or service, a closer look at crowdfunding reveals that backers attach many kinds of meanings and motivations to it. This article describes an exploratory study on backer motivations to participate in games crowdfunding. Utilizing two sets of data from an online survey, a quantitative section (N=426) and a qualitative section with open answers, it is found out that, among others, backers enjoy spectating game development, linking crowdfunding participation to new forms of consumption in the evolving media culture.