Teaching Digital Game Curricula in the Communication Discipline in Higher Education Institutions in the Greater China Region: A Curriculum Analysis Approach


Kang Yowei Yang Kenneth
2016 Chinese DiGRA '16

Digital game revenue in Asia is predicted to reach USD$20 billion, about 38% of the world market. As a result, higher education institutes in this region have enthusiastically developed programs to educate future digital game professionals. However, how have communication-related programs responded to the challenges and opportunities of digital game industries remains to be studied? In this study, we collected curricular data from 62 communication-related programs in China, Hong-Kong, Macau, Singapore, and Taiwan and provided the following observations: 1) The majority of communication-related programs in the Greater China Region has not offered comprehensive digital game curricula; 2) Newly-established programs are more responsive to the challenges and opportunities of digital game industries; 3) Courses in digital games are limited in scope and mainly concentrated on technology- and content-production dimension; 4) there is an observable relationship between faculty academic training, program direction, and course contents. Pedagogical implications were also discussed.

 

The Divide between E-sport and Playing Games in China


Zhang Dino Ge Recktenwald Daniel
2016 Chinese DiGRA '16

The presentation will argue that rise of the E-sport has led to persistent transformations of gaming and media, which is crowding out other legitimate forms of gaming from the public perception and media discourses. First, it will briefly describe the growth of E-sport as media and entertainment phenomenon (Jin 2010; Taylor, TL, Seo, 2013). This spectacle is created through the stylization of e-sport events themselves and equally important through secondary texts (Szablewicz, 2015). Secondly, the talk will argue that media, old and new, become stakeholders in the narrative as they create the stories of unprecedented growth in terms of profit and viewer numbers. E-sport becomes the only acceptable type of gaming. The third section will draw on ethnographic data collected from 2013 to 2015 in China and demonstrate how the discourses on E-sport and their divergence from gaming impact the rhythms of play in the everyday life of the “youxi wanjia 游戏玩家” (video game player) as well as the “dianjin xuanshou 电竞选手” (E-sport Contestant). The vocabulary of E-sport titles has penetrated everyday language and the word ‘gaming’ or ‘playing games’ have been replaced. As videogame culture becomes marginalized, principals of obligation and professionalism devour ‘play’ beyond the point of mere ‘contamination’ (Caillois, 2001). As a result, video game players, who enjoy a variety of different games, are distancing themselves from the proponents of e-sport.

 

Review of Serious Games Development in Hong Kong (2006-2016)


Wirman Hanna Yi Ren
2016 Chinese DiGRA '16

This paper investigates existing digital games developed and used in Hong Kong for serious needs. Based on a review done online and by interviewing experts in the field, over 300 games were found being used and developed in Hong Kong. The games are mostly available online for free use. The identified games are categorized into eight types based on their general theme. These are health, special needs, awareness raising (for general public), political games, culture, children’s and youth education (all levels), professional training, and marketing and advertisement. While discussing the summarized results of the review, this paper details funding support for serious games and introduces the main contributors to the field in Hong Kong.

 

Games as Travel Guides: A Look at Meaningful Downloadable Content and Its Connection to Locational Context


Durango Betty Wei Huaxin
2016 Chinese DiGRA '16

This paper aims to discuss the surging phenomenon of games placing more focus on locational context to create stories and play concepts as well as collaboration with local businesses. The latest trend of distributing exclusive downloadable content (DLC) at location-specific events acts as an incentive for gamers to travel locally or overseas. Such strategies help to promote traffic for places both from an environmental perspective and from a cultural perspective. The paper therefore will identify various opportunities of how content development could make an impact on a larger economic scale on the gaming industry, the tourism industry, and local businesses.

 

Global Influences on Regional Industries; Game development in Nordic countries, China, and India


Toftedahl Marcus Marklund Björn Engström Henrik Backlund Per
2016 Chinese DiGRA '16

The game development industry has historically been strongly associated with a few particularly dominant actors, namely Japan and the US. As a result, video game development processes and game content that have originated from these actors are often used as a benchmark for what game development is and can be. Discussing the games industry from these perspectives can, however, gloss over important nuances that make other game development regions unique. With this in mind, this paper intends to discuss the ways in which different cultural and regional contexts are reflected in the structure of local game development industries and, to some extent, in produced game content. To inform this discussion, the authors use the foundation and growth of game development practices in three different regions: the Nordic region, India, and China. These three regions serve as specific exemplifying cases of how video game industries and praxis can take different shapes depending on what resources and components they have available. The paper concludes that all regional games industries and game development practices are heavily influenced by the precedent set by historically dominant actors. This results in game content and development practices that often mimics pre-established standards. But, over time, the conditions surrounding the formation of regional industries manifest themselves in more locally unique content and development processes.