Digital Library Publication Forum Archives
- Proceedings of DiGRA23
DiGRA '19 - Proceedings of the 2019 DiGRA International Conference: Game, Play and the Emerging Ludo-Mix
- 58 articles or papers
Is this still participation? A case study of the disempowerment of player labourers
Prax Patrick
2019 DiGRA '19 - Proceedings of the 2019 DiGRA International Conference: Game, Play and the Emerging Ludo-Mix
Critical research into games and player labour has shown that player creators remain disempowered despite the impact of their work. On the other hand, player-creators enjoy their work, they freely and in an informed manner consent to working without pay, and they can use their unpaid labour as experience and CV-entries. This paper aims to critically discuss these arguments in the light of a specifically chosen case study. The analysis is informed by expert interviews of player creators and it uses Carpentier’s (2016) analytic framework for participatory processes. This analysis of the power relationship between player creators and game developer is elemental for the discussion around unpaid player labour. In this case the company has enough power to purposefully keep the involvement of players secret which supports the notion of exploitation of free labour. The discussion suggests possible ways forward and connects to the ongoing unionization movement in the industry.
Me, myself and others: Connecting player identification to gaming social capital
Regnath Franziska Elmezeny Ahmed
2019 DiGRA '19 - Proceedings of the 2019 DiGRA International Conference: Game, Play and the Emerging Ludo-Mix
The social outcomes of Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) have been subject to numerous studies in the past. In these games identification processes and virtual identities are present, yet most research measures game involvement solely through play frequency. This study proposes that time is an insufficient measure, and instead positively relates individual identification to in-game social connections among adult, German MMORPG players. This is done through mixing pre-existing theories, and scales; measuring Player Identification (van Looy et al. 2012), as well as online social capital (Williams 2006). The results from our study indicate that player identification positively predicts gaming social capital, a dedicated form of online social capital dedicated to gaming contexts, while time (measured by game experience) did not moderate this correlation. Hence, this study finds strong evidence for the insufficiency of time as game involvement measure, and the positive correlation between identification and social outcomes in MMORPGs.
On the de-familiarizing and re-ontologizing effects of glitches and glitch-alikes
Gualeni Stefano
2019 DiGRA '19 - Proceedings of the 2019 DiGRA International Conference: Game, Play and the Emerging Ludo-Mix
Interactive digital experiences are understood as disclosing possibilities of being that can extend beyond the actual. The ways in which those experiences prompt their audiences to interactively apply and repurpose their cognitive faculties are constrained by the technical possibilities of the digital medium. This entails that the transformative activities invited and upheld by the computer depend on the functional affordances of digital technology as well as on the specific ways in which it errs and malfunctions. In this paper, I discuss non-catastrophic computer malfunctions (i.e. glitches) as potentially introducing aspects of surprise, ambiguity, and humor in the interactive experience of a virtual world. Computer glitches can also be intentionally designed to be a constitutive part of a virtual world and triggered deliberately; these types of glitches are used as expressive tools that can stimulate critical thought and make us suspicious of the stability and the validity of our world-views.
Strategies for Endogenous Design of Educational Games
Athavale Sandeep Dalvi Girish
2019 DiGRA '19 - Proceedings of the 2019 DiGRA International Conference: Game, Play and the Emerging Ludo-Mix
Educational game designers strive to fulfill the promise of making learning fun. Games with endogenous design can fulfill this promise. In endogenous design, the gameplay emerges from the content, thus seamlessly integrating the act of playing with learning. However, a review of literature informs us of the lack of guidance on the endogenous design of educational games. There is a need to develop a framework which can aid designers achieve endogenous design. In this paper, we propose strategies for the endogenous design of educational games. We conduct in-situ studies using think-aloud protocol analysis to extract the tacit knowledge that designers discreetly use in practice. We synthesize the extracted knowledge into concise design strategies. The identification of these design strategies is a significant step towards building a framework for endogenous design of educational games.
Towards an analysis of virtual realism
Tavinor Grant
2019 DiGRA '19 - Proceedings of the 2019 DiGRA International Conference: Game, Play and the Emerging Ludo-Mix
That VR media are realistic, or more realistic than other traditional forms of depictive media, has sometimes claimed to be a “common-sense” view (Murphy, 2017). Exactly what comprises the realism of virtual media is not entirely clear and needs careful analysis, however. This paper offers the beginning of a philosophical analysis of the concept of “virtual realism” as it applies to videogames and related media. The term turns out to have several different senses that though related, are materially distinct and of differing credibility. This paper will add depth and clarity to the growing literature on virtual reality media by providing analysis of a key concept that is currently undertheorized.
Epistemological Issues in Understanding Games Design, Play-Experience, and Reportage
Howell Peter Stevens Brett
2019 DiGRA '19 - Proceedings of the 2019 DiGRA International Conference: Game, Play and the Emerging Ludo-Mix
This paper presents a philosophically grounded argument for examining how second-order analysis can be approached with regard to epistemologies of game design and play-experience. Games are presented as multiple ‘units of being’ sharing relationships of dependency and transformation, which can be approached differently by different audiences. To demonstrate how such relationships can function between units of being, examples from game analyses are discussed with particular attention to the role of cognition and memory in reporting on the play-experience specifically. Implications for design practice, player studies, game analysis, and games criticism are discussed throughout the argument, working towards a theoretical foundation for enabling more deeply informed interpretation and analyses.
Video Game Détournement: Playing Across Media
Barnabé Fanny
2019 DiGRA '19 - Proceedings of the 2019 DiGRA International Conference: Game, Play and the Emerging Ludo-Mix
Taking as a starting point the French concept of “artistic détournement” and its application in the context of video games, this paper aims to study creative remix practices that use video games as materials or as matrices to produce derivative works. Precisely, the research examines a diversified range of productions whose common feature is to be created from video games (mods, machinimas, let’s play videos…) in order to question the relationships between the notions of détournement and play. Where is the boundary between these two activities? How to define and categorize the various forms of détournements in the specific context of the video game culture? Can these remix practices that go beyond the frame of the game and extend themselves to other media be described as “playful”? By crossing rhetoric and theories of play, this paper will try to answer these questions.
How to Reference a Digital Game
Gualeni Stefano Fassone Riccardo Linderoth Jonas
2019 DiGRA '19 - Proceedings of the 2019 DiGRA International Conference: Game, Play and the Emerging Ludo-Mix
The question of what constitutes a game as a social object is famously problematic. The alleged impossibility of formulating a complete analytical definition for what constitutes a game is perhaps the most evident symptom of that difficulty. One expression of this problem that has been entirely overlooked by academia is the scholarly practice of referencing games. This paper addresses game referencing as a practice that is implicated with- and constitutive for- the ways in which we conceptualize and assign cultural value to games. Focusing on the conceptual framing of games, on game authorship, and on the historical dimensions of both, we will discuss referencing games as an act that is inevitably political. On these premises, we will provide foundational guidelines for thinking about one’s decisions concerning referencing and about the meaning and relevance of those decisions.
The Relationship between Prior Gaming Experience and Consciousness of Computer Programming or Social Views on Information: An Empirical Study of High School Students in Japan
Fukui Masanori Ishikawa Takeshi Hagikura Jo Sasaki Yuji
2019 DiGRA '19 - Proceedings of the 2019 DiGRA International Conference: Game, Play and the Emerging Ludo-Mix
The purpose of this research is to examine the relationship between prior gaming experience and consciousness of computer programming or social views on information. To evaluate this relationship, a questionnaire survey was conducted on high school students in Japan in 2016. As a result, the relationships between prior gaming experience and consciousness of computer programming or “Importance of understanding the mechanisms of computers” were shown. Besides, in the group playing the games usually, the average values of most items were significantly higher than those in the group which did not usually play the games. And there was also no significant difference between the higher group (over 2 hours a day) and the lower group (less than 2 hours a day). Based on the results, it was suggested that the use of game topics was effective for promoting consciousness of computer programming and social views on information in programming education.
Beyond God’s Eye: on the Reliability of Gameworld Images
Fragoso Suely Freitas Fabiana Amaro Mariana
2019 DiGRA '19 - Proceedings of the 2019 DiGRA International Conference: Game, Play and the Emerging Ludo-Mix
This article questions the influence of visual enunciation of gameworlds on players’ spatial practices. It begins with a reminder that images are not naïve, followed by a brief review of the literature about the modernist ideological charge of two types of images widely used in games: maps and perspective projections. Considerations about the mediating role of game images leads to the hypothesis that games highlight the inseparability of the spatial practices known as mapping and touring (de Certeau 1984; Lammes 2008, 2009, 2015, 2018). The ideas are exemplified by the combined uses of maps and perspective images in 5 games. Results indicate that maps and central perspective reify Modern values and beliefs. They are more likely to challenge the stratification of spatial practices when encountered in combination or in intermediate forms such as oblique projections. Their potential is intensified by synchronicity and by releasing control of the point of view.