Progress Wars: Idle Games and the Demarcation of “Real” Games

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Deterding Sebastian
2016 DiGRA/FDG '16 - Abstract Proceedings of the First International Joint Conference of DiGRA and FDG

 

What We Talk About When We Talk About Game Aesthetics

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

Digital games are commonly described as phenomena that combine aesthetic, social and technological elements, yet our understanding of the aesthetic element of games and play is perhaps the least developed of all. All too often, an aesthetics perspective within game studies and design discourses is relegated to a marginal role, by conflating game aesthetics with graphics and “eye candy,” or by limiting aesthetic discussion to graphic style analysis or debates on the question “are games art?” Changing game technologies, as well as arguments from within philosophy, psychology, interaction design theory and cultural theory, call for us to examine the implicit and explicit assumptions we make when we write about aesthetics within game studies research, as a prelude to reclaiming a perspective that will allow us to better understand the way in which games function as sites for sensory and embodied play, creative activity and aesthetic experience.

 

Conditions of Engagement in Game Simulation: Contexts of Gender, Culture and Age

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Noble Ralph Ruiz Kathleen Destefano Marc Mintz Jonathan
2003 DiGRA '03 - Proceedings of the 2003 DiGRA International Conference: Level Up

We advocate a research approach to determining the conditions of engagement in game simulation that is a multi-disciplinary cultural and scientific inquiry at the juncture of psychological, artistic, and programming perspectives. What are the factors that cause some people to become enthralled with detail-oriented simulation game-play, while others are captivated by more abstracted, symbolic styles of play? How are the conditions of engagement influenced by gender, culture, and age?