ROM Hacks and Modding in the Age of User- Generated Content

Dragonborn is for Porn. The intertextual semiotics of the TESV: Skyrim fan made pornographic modifications

Romance Never Changes…Or Does It?: Fallout, Queerness, and Mods

Romance options are common in mainstream games, but since games have been criticized for their heteronormativity, such options are worth examining for their contribution to problematic elements within gaming culture. The Fallout series suffers from many of these issues; however, recent games in the can be modded, offering fans a way to address these problems. In this paper, I examine heteronormative elements of the Fallout series’ portrayal of queerness to demonstrate how these issues impacted the series over time. I also look more specifically at heteronormative mechanics and visuals from Fallout 4, the most recent single-player game in the series. Finally, I discuss three fan-created mods for Fallout 4 that represent diverse approaches to adding queer elements to the game. I argue that one effective response to problematic portrayals of queerness in games is providing modding tools to the fans so that they can address issues in the games directly.

An Inclusive Perspective on Gameplay: Towards a wide understanding of gameplay in theory and praxis

In this paper we want to argue for a more inclusive understanding of the notion of gameplay which implies practices that are normally considered non-default, marginal, transgressive, subversive, or other forms of gameplay. Instead of considering these practices of gameplay as non-standard forms which exist at the margins of whatever could be considered gameplay, we argue that these practices should very much be considered as standard forms of gameplay or simply as “normal” gameplay. We believe that these practices are essential for a comprehensive understanding of the medium. While this idea seems not to be controversial in game culture or in the realm of game praxis it seems that especially computer game theory and the computer game industry are driving this form of “othering”. In both cases the distinction which comes with this provides certain discursive agents (such as theorists and industry representatives) with power over other agents (practitioners and players). To show these mechanisms we will first re-read common notions of gameplay and show how non-standard practices of gameplay are either given different, at times derogatory names, or they are completely omitted in order to mark them as “other” forms of gameplay. We will then look at notions of non-standard forms of gameplay such as spoil sporting, cheating, innovative gameplay, transgressive, subversive play, authentic gameplay and show how this othering is here perpetuated on the theoretical level while although most of the authors of these analyses paradoxically intend to rehabilitate these practices as belonging to a wider notion of gameplay. Eventually we will suggest an inclusive perspective on gameplay which is based on a wide notion of gameplay and which not only includes practices that are commonly considered marginal but puts them in the center of gameplay.

Smash Mods, Smash Creativity: Nintendo, Project M, and Enclosure

Editors of Play: The Scripts and Practices of Co-creativity in Minecraft and LittleBigPlanet

Computer games can be described as assemblages which, to use a term from Science and Technology Studies, provide different scripts that set the scene for user practices. These scripts include the game world’s possibilities and restrictions and the degree of freedom provided to the users by the overall gameplay. Lately, a new genre of games challenges these specifics. So-called editor games like Minecraft or LittleBigPlanet, which entered the market with sweeping success, are not games in the traditional sense in which players follow certain rules guided by narrative elements framing the gameplay. Instead, these sandbox games – often labeled as ‘digital LEGO’ or ‘co-creative open worlds’ – afford the construction of a game world rather than playing within one. Following a praxeological approach, this essay will try to make co-creative processes in editor games accessible as a research object, by performing a critical evaluation of established methods within Game Studies complemented by an experimental focus group analysis.