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

 

“I Like the Idea of Killing But Not the Idea of Cruelty”: How New Zealand youth negotiate the pleasures of simulated violence

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

‘For all its horror, you can’t help but gape at the awful majesty of combat … It fills the eye. It commands you. You hate it, yes, but your eyes do not’. The aim of this paper is to account for the experience of a two-year research project, funded by the Royal Society of New Zealand. This project sought to interrogate commonly articulated beliefs concerning the contribution of games to the ‘debauched innocence of our young’. Akin to the seemingly incompatible sentiments expressed in the opening quotation, the project broadly acknowledged the complexity of players’ relationship with violence as it is articulated in interactive digital games. To achieve this the project prioritized the experiences and perspectives of young people on the nature and function of what is commonly understood as ‘violent’ content within games. Despite forming the readership of popular culture, young people are commonly denied a voice by the very ‘authorities and opinion makers’ that chastise their practices. This paper highlights how players variously contested the term ‘violence’ for its expansive nature and the appropriateness of the way it is unquestioningly and legitimately employed to express what happens in games.

 

Agency Reconsidered

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

The concept of “agency” in games and other playable media (also referred to as “intention”) has been discussed as a player experience and a structural property of works. We shift focus, considering agency, instead, as a phenomenon involving both player and game, one that occurs when the actions players desire are among those they can take (and vice versa) as supported by an underlying computational model. This shifts attention away from questions such as whether agency is “free will” (it is not) and toward questions such as how works evoke the desires agency satisfies, employ computational models in the service of player action and ongoing dramatic probability, use interfaces and mediation to encourage appropriate audience expectation, shift from initial audience expectation to an understanding of the computational model, and can be shaped with recognition of the inherently improvisational nature of agency. We focus particularly on agency in relation to the fictional worlds of games and other playable media.

 

Meaningful Movement: The Labyrinth and ‘Castlevania: Symphony of the Night’ [Extended Abstract]

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

This paper presents the castle in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night as a structure that sets out a pattern of movement for the player-character that is similar to that experienced by the treader of a classical labyrinth. Specifically, this pattern is one of turning back on oneself and it always derives its meaning from the context in which it is performed. For example, the meaning of Theseus stalking the Cretan labyrinth in search of the Minotaur is different from the meaning of the Troia performed at the funeral games of Anchises in the Aeneid or of the dance of a medieval English turf maze treader. This is in spite of the fact that the actual pattern of movement is largely the same in all three cases. I argue here that the transfer of this pattern of movement to Symphony of the Night transforms its meaning once again. Couched in a conventional horror narrative that leans heavily on pop-Freudian motifs, the movement of the main character, the half-vampire Alucard, emerges as a text that writes his ambivalence in spatial terms. The architecture of game space, then, is understood as notes for a performance which derives its meaning in relation to some pre-scripted elements.

 

Play’s the Thing: A Framework to Study Videogames as Performance

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

Performance studies deals with human action in context, as well as the process of making meaning between the performers and the audience. This paper presents a framework to study videogames as a performative medium, applying terms from performance studies to videogames both as software and as games. This performance framework for videogames allows us to understand how videogames relate to other performance activities, as well as understand how they are a structured experience that can be designed. Theatrical performance is the basis of the framework, because it is the activity that has the most in common with games. Rather than explaining games in terms of ‘interactive drama,’ the parallels with theatre help us understand the role of players both as performers and as audience, as well as how the game design shapes the experience. The theatrical model also accounts for how videogames can have a spectatorship, and how the audience may have an effect on gameplay.

 

A Study on New Gameplay Based on Brain-Computer Interface

Ko Minjin Bae Kyoungwoo Oh Gyuhwan Ryu Taiyoung
2009 DiGRA '09 - Proceedings of the 2009 DiGRA International Conference: Breaking New Ground: Innovation in Games, Play, Practice and Theory

Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) is a way to control computers by using human brain waves. As the technology has improved, BCI devices have become smaller and cheaper, making it possible for more individuals to buy them. This allows BCI to be applied to new fields outside of pure research, including entertainment. We examine whether BCI devices can be used as a new gaming device, approaching it from a game design perspective. We propose game play elements that can effectively utilize BCI devices and present a game prototype that demonstrates several of these game play elements. Next, we use statistical data analysis to show that using a BCI device as well as keyboard and mouse interfaces makes the game’s control clearer and more efficient than using the traditional input devices. The results offer guidelines for effective game design methodology for making BCI based games.

 

“I’m overburdened!” An Empirical Study of the Player, the Avatar, and the Gameworld

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

This paper presents the first results of an empirical study of how players interpret the role of the player and the relationship between the player and playable figures in gameworlds. In the following, we will see examples of four genres that situate the player in different positions with respect to the gameworld. Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars illustrates a game where the player does not have a playable figure in the gameworld, while Crysis exemplifies a game where player and playable figure viewpoints merge into one entity. Diablo 2 represents a game with a developing figure, and The Sims 2 demonstrates a hybrid combination of named, developing figures controlled by the player from a god perspective. The study shows that players tend to accept all features that aid them in understanding how to play the game, and that it does not matter whether features have a stylistic or naturalistic relationship to the gameworld. Regarding the relationship between player and playable figure, the respondents do not see the dual position of the player situated in the physical world while having the power to act within the gameworld as a paradox, but a necessary way of communication in games.

 

The Rise and Fall of CTS: Kenneth Burke Identifying with the World of Warcraft

Paul Christopher A. Philpott Jeffrey S.
2009 DiGRA '09 - Proceedings of the 2009 DiGRA International Conference: Breaking New Ground: Innovation in Games, Play, Practice and Theory

Guilds in online games often have a tumultuous life. In this essay we examine the rise and fall of the Cardboard Tube Samurai, a World of Warcraft guild, and explain three key phases in the guild’s existence using the ideas of Kenneth Burke. We argue that rhetorical theory can offer substantive insights into the events of online games, in this case focusing on the roles of identification, division, and consubstantiality in explaining how a guild can build for two years to their greatest triumph and fall apart two weeks later.

 

Effects of Sensory Immersion on Behavioural Indicators of Player Experience: Movement Synchrony and Controller Pressure

Hoogen Wouter M. van den IJsselsteijn Wijnand A. Kort Yvonne A.W. de
2009 DiGRA '09 - Proceedings of the 2009 DiGRA International Conference: Breaking New Ground: Innovation in Games, Play, Practice and Theory

In this paper we investigate the relation between immersion in a game and the player’s intensity of physical behaviours, in order to explore whether these behaviours can be reliably used as indicators of player experience. Immersion in the game was manipulated by means of screen size (20" vs 42" screen), and sound pressure level (60dBA vs 80 dBA), according to a 2 x 2 design. The effects of these manipulations on self-reported experience (including arousal and presence) and behavioural intensity (controller tilt and button pressure) were measured. Results showed that sound pressure level in particular strongly influenced both the self-reported measures of people's affective reactions and feelings of presence and the force people applied to the interface device. Results from controller tilt demonstrated that participants did move along with the dynamics of the game. The measure was, however not sensitive to either of the two manipulations of sensory immersion. In the paper the implications for the use of behavioural indicators of player experience in general and the feeling of presence are discussed.

 

Peer Puppeteers: Alternate Reality Gaming in Primary School Settings

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

Whilst there has been considerable research into the potential uses of digital games in the classroom, there has been less investigation into the educational value of Alternate Reality Games (ARGs). Unlike console or computer games, in ARGs the game-world is constructed through a combination of on- and off-screen media, and is created and shaped through dynamic dialogue between the designers and players. To create and play an ARG, children are not required to develop programming skills or negotiate gaming software. Instead the players and designers of ARGs create the game elements through the creative and inventive use of ubiquitous communication technologies and artifacts. In this paper I will be reporting on a crosscurricular multi-media literacy project undertaken in a large South London Primary School over two years, which represents one element of my ongoing research into the potential of Alternate Reality Gaming in Primary Education. In this, the children collaborated with the teacher to design and play an ARG with and for their peers. This research demonstrates that ARGs represent an innovative means for children to explore and develop their understanding and experiences of learning and literacy practices across media. In this project, the students made good use of their existing knowledge of games and the affordances of various media and narrative conventions. Through the active production of ARGs, they explored the relationships between these forms, in new ways.

 

Using microgenetic methods to investigate problem solving in video games

Anderson Alice Brunner Cornelia Culp Katie McMillan Diamond James Lewis Ashley Martin Wendy
2009 DiGRA '09 - Proceedings of the 2009 DiGRA International Conference: Breaking New Ground: Innovation in Games, Play, Practice and Theory

As formative research for the development of a suite of middle school life science video games, we are adapting microgenetic research methods [15] that use repeated, small-scale task-based sessions with participants to document how reasoning and understanding can develop and change in short periods of time. In this study, we are working with students between the ages of 9 and 12, examining the development of their strategic thinking as they play commercial games that focus on problem solving tasks (World of Goo, Auditorium, Crayon Physics, Portal). The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the methods we are using and to discuss how they may help to illuminate how game mechanics, narrative context and instructional design can be utilized to create developmentally appropriate games.