Digital Library Publication Forum Archives

DiGRA '09 - Proceedings of the 2009 DiGRA International Conference: Breaking New Ground: Innovation in Games, Play, Practice and Theory

- 139 articles or papers

 

Transgressive Gender Play: Profiles and Portraits of Girl Players in a Tween Virtual World

Kafai Yasmin B. Fields Deborah A. Giang Michael T.
2009 DiGRA '09 - Proceedings of the 2009 DiGRA International Conference: Breaking New Ground: Innovation in Games, Play, Practice and Theory

Little is known about how girl players navigate through virtual worlds, negotiate their identity, and challenge cultural norms and practices. We investigated over 500 players in a science-themed tween virtual world called Whyville.net with girls being the majority (68%) of its 1.5 million registered players. Using logfile data collected over a six-month long period, we identified three distinct groups: core gamers (7% of all players), semi-core gamers (34% of players), and peripheral gamers (59% of players). We found that all groups participated in common practices but that core players also participated in non-traditional, transgressive practices. These included private flirting with other players and aggressive scamming of others for personal profit as well as public denials of such activities because they violated gender and social norms. Often hidden, these facets of girls’ play indicate the value of virtual worlds as digital publics that offer youth opportunities to engage in identity exploration and border crossing.

 

Mechanisms of the Soul – Tackling the Human Condition in Videogames

Rusch Doris C.
2009 DiGRA '09 - Proceedings of the 2009 DiGRA International Conference: Breaking New Ground: Innovation in Games, Play, Practice and Theory

Focusing on games’ specific affectivei, procedural and metaphoricalii potential, this paper is going to explore three devices for the purposeful design of games that tackle the human condition. Device I “Fictional Alignment” matches game structures to fictional themes in order to expand games’ emotional palette through leveraging the affective strength of game emotions and shaping their meaning through fictional contextualization. Device II, “Procedurality”, discusses the potential and limits of procedural expression to enhance our understanding of the mechanisms inherent to the human condition. Device III, “Experiential Metaphor”, investigates the metaphorical potential of game aesthetics and how it can help to make abstract experiences such as emotional processes and mental states emotionally tangible. Since these devices are based on characteristics that coexist in games, they are not mutually exclusive. However, discussing them separately should facilitate their deliberate use.

 

Make Videogames History: Game preservation and The National Videogame Archive

Newman James Simons Iain
2009 DiGRA '09 - Proceedings of the 2009 DiGRA International Conference: Breaking New Ground: Innovation in Games, Play, Practice and Theory

This paper introduces and describes the UK-based National Videogame Archive, detailing the process leading to its creation and the core methodologies and aspirations of the project. It places the work of the NVA within the wider contexts of preservation, player culture and academia and describes initial projects undertaken by the NVA to supplement core preservation activities.

 

Defining Operational Logics

Wardrip-Fruin Noah Mateas Michael
2009 DiGRA '09 - Proceedings of the 2009 DiGRA International Conference: Breaking New Ground: Innovation in Games, Play, Practice and Theory

Much analysis of games focuses, understandably, on their mechanics and the resulting audience experiences. Similarly, many genres of games are understood at the level of mechanics. But there is also the persistent sense that a deeper level of analysis would be useful, and a number of proposals have been made that attempt to look toward a level that undergirds mechanics. This paper focuses on a particular approach of this sort—operational logics—first proposed by Noah Wardrip-Fruin (2005) and since then discussed by authors such as Michael Mateas (2006) and Ian Bogost (2007). Operational logics connect fundamental abstract operations, which determine the state evolution of a system, with how they are understood at a human level. In this paper we expand on the concept of operational logics, offering a more detailed and rigorous discussion than provided in earlier accounts, setting the stage for more effective future use of logics as an analytical tool. In particular, we clarify that an operational logic defines an authoring (representational) strategy, supported by abstract processes or lower-level logics, for specifying the behaviors a system must exhibit in order to be understood as representing a specified domain to a specified audience. We provide detailed discussion of graphical and resource management logics, as well as explaining problems with certain earlier expansions of the term (e.g., to file handling and interactive fiction’s riddles).

 

Better Game Studies Education the Carcassonne Way

Hullett Kenneth Kurniawan Sri Wardrip-Fruin Noah
2009 DiGRA '09 - Proceedings of the 2009 DiGRA International Conference: Breaking New Ground: Innovation in Games, Play, Practice and Theory

As game design programs become more common, educators are faced with challenges in bringing the formal study of games to students. In particular, educators must find ways to help students transition from viewing games purely as entertainment to a field worthy of critical study. One aspect of this transition is to view games on the level of mechanics rather than purely in terms of aesthetics. The study described in this paper was conducted to test the hypothesis that exposing students in an introductory game studies class to German-style board games would lead to improved understanding of game mechanics. The data gathered shows that the students who were exposed to these types of games did exhibit a greater understanding of game mechanics at the end of the course.

 

Playful User Interfaces: Literature Review and Model for Analysis

Kuts Ekaterina
2009 DiGRA '09 - Proceedings of the 2009 DiGRA International Conference: Breaking New Ground: Innovation in Games, Play, Practice and Theory

great potential to improve user experience, as it can be both an effective instrument for the design and a significant addition to current formal user interfaces. Playfulness increases users’ motivation to use the product, and learn new features and technologies of the device. Thereby it opens additional capabilities for designers and developers to introduce new functionality. On basis of a literature review, this paper provides an overview of user interface characteristics that can affect playfulness. We present a set of user interface components with playful interaction possibilities and define a general methodology for analyzing playfulness in user interfaces. Game industry has a tremendous long-term experience in creating attractive interfaces with the best balance of fun and functionality. This paper shows possibilities how it can be effectively generalized to non-playful applications through playful attributes.

 

Modeling Games with Petri Nets

Araújo Manuel
2009 DiGRA '09 - Proceedings of the 2009 DiGRA International Conference: Breaking New Ground: Innovation in Games, Play, Practice and Theory

This paper describes an alternate approach to the modeling of game systems and game flow with Petri nets. Modeling languages usually used in this area are of limited efficiency when it comes to validating the underlying game systems. We provide a case study to show that Petri Nets can be used with advantages over other modeling languages. Their graphical notation is simple, yet it can be used to model complex game systems. Their mathematically defined structure enables the modeled system to be formally analyzed and its behavior’s simulation offers the possibility of detecting unwanted behaviors, loop-holes or balancing issues while still in the game design stage.

 

Conflict management and leadership communication in multiplayer communities

Siitonen Marko
2009 DiGRA '09 - Proceedings of the 2009 DiGRA International Conference: Breaking New Ground: Innovation in Games, Play, Practice and Theory

Online multiplayer games often promote long-term cooperation between players. The resulting player groups and communities can be harmonious and long-lived, but it is equally possible that they encounter problems in building trust, managing the community effort, or negotiating values and goals. Conflict management, therefore, is important for the functioning and stability of multiplayer communities. This exploratory study looks at leadership communication and conflict management in the context of multiplayer computer games and the groups and communities that operate within them. By looking at players’ and playerleaders’ perceptions of conflicts and conflict management, a conception of the patterns behind conflicts is formed. In addition, issues of conflict management and leadership communication are discussed.

 

Processing Play; Perceptions of Persuasion

Svahn Mattias
2009 DiGRA '09 - Proceedings of the 2009 DiGRA International Conference: Breaking New Ground: Innovation in Games, Play, Practice and Theory

This is a theoretical position paper exploring a projecting of the paradigm of dual process modeling of perception onto the perception of “play”. In this process, a model is proposed that sheds new light on the understanding of how “play” is understood, perceived and processed by the player. The paper concludes with a discussion on what implications the model can have on play analysis, game design and the understanding of persuasion through play, a.k.a. persuasive gaming, serious gaming, advergaming etc.