Digital Library Publication Archives

Search results for: http://www.digra.org/dl/db/07309.19112.pdf

- 1506 articles or papers

 

Spontaneous Communities of Learning: Learning Ecosystems in Massively Multiplayer Online Gaming Environments

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

This paper outlines the theoretical rationale behind a doctoral research project currently in progress. Through a multi-method approach, the project examines spontaneously-emerging communities of learning in and around massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) within the context of social learning theory, social networks, self-organisation, online communities and emergence.

 

Studying Games in School: a Framework for Media Education

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

This paper explores how media education principles can be extended to digital games, and whether the notion of ‘game literacy’ is an appropriate metaphor for thinking about the study of digital games in schools. Rationales for studying the media are presented, focusing on the importance of setting up social situations that encourage more systematic and critical understanding of games. The value of practical production, or game making, is emphasized, as a way of developing both conceptual understanding and creative abilities. Definitions of games are reviewed to explore whether the study of games is best described as a form of literacy. I conclude that games raise difficulties for existing literacy frameworks, but that it remains important to study the multiple aspects of games in an integrated way. A model for conceptualizing the study of games is presented which focuses on the relationship between design, play and culture.

 

Law, order and conflicts of interest in massively multiplayer online games

Pargman Daniel Eriksson Andreas
2005 DiGRA '05 - Proceedings of the 2005 DiGRA International Conference: Changing Views: Worlds in Play

In huge online games where great numbers of players can be connected at the same time, social interaction is complex and conflicts become part of everyday life. There is a set of rules and norms in the game for what is allowed and what is prohibited and these are partly set up by the game publisher and partly evolve among the players themselves over time. This paper describes and exemplifies a number of often-contested behaviors around which most in-game conflicts in the massively multiplayer online games (MMOG) Everquest revolve. Using these examples as a starting point, the paper presents a conceptual framework for analyzing conflicts and allegiance in MMOGs.

 

How Are Games Educational? Learning Theories Embodied in Games

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

Through the combined efforts of many dedicated researchers across the globe, the “message” of the value of games for learning is starting to be heard in formal education, but there remains considerable resistance. One way to help overcome this resistance and influence the acceptance and integration of games as educational technology is through the connection of existing game design with scholarly and widely accepted pedagogy. This paper outlines the theories of Robert Gagné, and Howard Gardner to demonstrate how good games, even purely commercial ones, already embody the fundamental elements of these learning and instructional theories. In this way, it can be shown that good games constitute sound educational pedagogy.

 

Addressing Social Dilemmas and Fostering Cooperation through Computer Games

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

The concept of social dilemmas can be used to understand social situations all around us. I am looking at identity formation to help understand why people make the decisions they do in a social dilemma and whether the explicit knowledge of being in these situations help steer them to cooperate within their social groups. First I describe a previous study which clearly demonstrates the need to think about identity deeply and to think of decision-making as happening within specific social contexts. Then I describe on-going ethnographic, action research with a guild in World of Warcraft. I am hoping to get an insight into how social norms of the guild, and game in general, can support cooperative behavior. I discover that I must do this through collaborative community management in order to legitimately participate and influence the guild.

 

Girls Creating Games: Challenging Existing Assumptions about Game Content

Denner Jill Bean Steve Werner Linda
2005 DiGRA '05 - Proceedings of the 2005 DiGRA International Conference: Changing Views: Worlds in Play

In a reinforcing cycle, few females create games and fewer girls than boys play games. In this paper, we increase our understanding of what girls like about games and gaming by describing the content of 45 games that were designed and programmed by middle school girls. The findings suggest that that when given the opportunity, girls design games that challenge the current thematic trends in the gaming industry. The most prominent theme was the way they expressed and worked through fears and social issues in their stories. Most used bright, vivid colors, and their stories took place in real world settings and involved moral decisions. Few used violent feedback. Girls also used the games as spaces to play with gender role stereotypes by challenging authority figures and using humor. We discuss the implications of these findings for the debate on whether games should be gender-specific or gender-neutral.

 

Playing With Non-Humans: Digital Games as Techno-Cultural Form

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

Game studies has yet to engage with a sustained debate on the implications of its fundamentally technologically based foundation – i.e. the ‘digitality’ of digital games. This paper calls for such a debate and offers some initial thoughts on issues and directions. The humanities and social sciences are founded on the principle that historical and cultural agency reside solely in the human and the social. Drawing on Science and Technology Studies, Actor-Network Theory and cybercultural studies, this paper argues that a full understanding of both the playing of digital games, and the wider techno-cultural context of this play, is only possible through a recognition and theorisation of technological agency. Taking the Gameboy Advance game Advance Wars 2 as a case study, the paper explores the implications for game studies of attention to non-human agency – specifically the agency of simulation and artificial life software - in digital game play.

 

Architecting Scalability for Massively Multiplayer Online Gaming Experiences

Gil Rui Tavares José Pedro Roque Licinio
2005 DiGRA '05 - Proceedings of the 2005 DiGRA International Conference: Changing Views: Worlds in Play

In this study, the authors propose to discuss scalability challenges posed by Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) scenarios, while outlining issues specific to the context of online interactive experiences and game genres. These scalability issues concern: game simulation, content distribution, communication and coordination, and structural scalability. The authors present a critical review of approaches to known issues and outline research goals for an integrated scalability approach, to achieve a balanced, general purpose design, for MMOG infrastructure.

 

The ‘White-eyed’ Player Culture: Grief Play and Construction of Deviance in MMORPGs

Lin Holin Sun Chuen-Tsai
2005 DiGRA '05 - Proceedings of the 2005 DiGRA International Conference: Changing Views: Worlds in Play

This study explores the social process governing the nature, emergence, application, and consequences of labeling the ‘white-eyed’ or grief players in massively multiplayer online role playing games in Taiwan. We found that two types of ‘white-eyed’ players exist in MMORPGs. The explicit type, who come out and organize themselves into griefer pledges, can be understood as players who rebel against game rules. Most of the common players are actually the second type, or implicit griefers. They play grief in an unidentifiable way with weak self-awareness, and put the griefer stigma on other age-groups to alleviate their anxiety in a cross-age co-playing era.

 

Early Games Production in New Zealand

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

This illustrated paper reports on the early digital games industry in New Zealand, during the late 1970s and 80s. It presents an overview of this largely unknown history, drawing on in depth archival research, interviews with key industry participants and collectors. It discusses the local production of consoles, handhelds, and arcade games in this market, as well as anomalies of distribution of game systems widely available elsewhere, which was the context for this production. While relative isolation – geographical and policy driven – accounts for part of the booming manufacture during this period, the paper questions how helpful it is to treat early local games production as just a phenomenon of the local. While it is sometimes strategically useful, it is argued that this production of locality can mask more complex intersections between the local and non-local – or global – factors, the heterogenising aspects of globalization in this period of early digital games.