Digital Library Keyword Archives

videogames

- 26 articles or papers

 

“How many headshots you’ve done”: Achievement as discursive practice in videogame play

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

In this paper I argue that achievement is a significant discourse in practice in videogame use. Drawing from Bauman’s (2001) discussion of an individualised society were progress is episodic and autonomous, and from phenomenological interviews with adult players I discuss how players use videogames to perform progress. The use of games as compensation for an otherwise unsatisfactory life reproduces new forms of progress, but these remain dependent on endless consumption of new technologies. This presents videogames as having a pacifying role that allows players to go on (buying) in the face of persistent failures to experience the progress ‘promised’ by consumer culture.

 

Workshop: Ethics in Videogames [Extended Abstracts]

Zagal José P. Schrier Karen Sicart Miguel
2009 DiGRA '09 - Proceedings of the 2009 DiGRA International Conference: Breaking New Ground: Innovation in Games, Play, Practice and Theory

This workshop will highlight the experiences of researchers and practitioners who are investigating and designing games in the growing field of ethics and games. In the first half of the workshop, we will lead a discussion of best practices for designing and studying games that enable the practice of ethical thinking and reasoning skills. We will also evaluate possible methodologies and challenges for assessing ethics in games. Finally, we will discuss ethical considerations surrounding the development of games and gamer communities. In the second half of the workshop, participants will engage in a series of hands-on activities designed to put into practice many of the issues discussed earlier. These activities will include exercises in game design as well as game analysis

 

The Disappearance and Reappearance and Disappearance of the Player in Videogame Advertising

Young Bryan-Mitchell
2007 DiGRA '07 - Proceedings of the 2007 DiGRA International Conference: Situated Play

Throughout the short history of videogames the ways in which they have been advertised has changed dramatically. Although videogame advertising has yet to be adequately studied it played a key role in the constitution of and education of potential videogame players. While most modern videogame ads feature the games themselves, early videogame ads prominently featured the players as a tool not only for selling the new gadgets but also as a way of showing consumers how to use them. This paper will explore the ways in which videogame advertisements functioned to change the ways in which consumers thought about the home and the ways in which they could actively co

 

Situations of Play: Patterns of Spatial Use in Videogames

McGregor Leigh Georgia
2007 DiGRA '07 - Proceedings of the 2007 DiGRA International Conference: Situated Play

Gameplay always occurs somewhere. Any discussion of situated play therefore should consider the actual spaces in which we play. Yet everyday real space is also deeply embedded in the games themselves. Videogames take patterns of spatial use from reality and situate them in their spatial structure. This paper explores these "situations of play" and their implementation in representational video game environments, seeking to understand game space through its connection to real space. But because play does not exist in isolation from its surroundings this paper takes into account the way videogames are situated in the world. How game space is presented, from screen-mediated game to pervasive games, affects how the patterns of spatial use are implemented. Game space also feeds back into real space, where their intersection forms what can be termed as played space. To understand the transfer of patterns from reality to games this paper examines games as spatial constructs, arguing that game space is architectural. Investigating the nexus between architecture and games, and using architecture as a tool to unpack spatial conditions in videogames, this paper explores how games are structured by their spatial qualities.

 

Evolution of Spatial Configurations In Videogames

Fernández-Vara Clara Zagal José P. Mateas Michael
2005 DiGRA '05 - Proceedings of the 2005 DiGRA International Conference: Changing Views: Worlds in Play

This paper deals with the basic spatial configurations in videogames from early games until today, focusing on how they position the player with respect to the playfield, and how they affect gameplay. The basic spatial configurations are defined by a few basic features (cardinality of gameplay, cardinality of gameworld and representation) which combined can account for most videogame spaces.

 

The Sponsored Avatar: Examining the Present Reality and Future Possibilities of Advertising in Digital Games

Chambers Jason
2005 DiGRA '05 - Proceedings of the 2005 DiGRA International Conference: Changing Views: Worlds in Play

This paper examines the practice of advertising within the space of digital games. Additionally it anticipates the future development of advertising within the interactive entertainment spaces. A future that holds possibilities as varied as actual game sponsorship, product placement and brand integration within games, or cross promotional opportunities between digital games and other forms of entertainment media. The author seeks neither to neither bury nor praise the practice, but to offer a careful and reasoned examination. Given the similarity between videogames and movies this research synthesis incorporates analysis of advertising placement within those genres with limited processing theory to propose a placement model for digital games. The analysis includes the perspective of advertisers, game publishers and designers, and end user consumers. This work finds that currently there are multiple approaches to in-game advertising, but that it is an accepted practice by end user consumers. An agenda for future approaches is also offered.