Game reviews as tools in the construction of game historical awareness in Finland, 1984-2010: Case MikroBitti Magazine

The paper introduces a case study on game journalistic practices and on the construction of historical self-understanding of game cultures. It presents results of the study of Finnish digital game reviews, retrieved from a major computer hobbyist magazine, MikroBitti. The results are based on a qualitative content analysis of 640 reviews from two magazine issues per year (1984–2010). The aim is to examine changes in the production of game reviews, in the work of individual reviewers, and then to focus on particular stylistic characteristics: to study how game journalists refer, on the one hand to other popular media cultural forms and products such as television series, cinema, comics, literature, sports, news, board games, and on the other hand, to other digital games, game genres, genre-hybrids, game producers, national game product styles as well as game designer auteurs. The paper argues that by using these references and allusions game journalists construct historical understanding of digital gaming as a particular popular media cultural form. The preliminary research hypothesis was that digital game cultural references increase and other media cultural references decline in reviews. This has proven to be partially incorrect. The content analysis of reviews hints that historical self-understanding of game cultural actors as well as the press and gaming industry has grown and been enriched since the 1980s.

Integrating Emergence and Progression

This paper investigates how structures of emergence and progression in games might be integrated. By leveraging the formalism of Machination diagrams, the shape of the mechanics that typically control progression in games are exposed. Two strategies to create mechanics that control progression but exhibit more emergent behavior by including feedback loops are presented and discussed.

Diversity of Play

Based on the keynote lectures held at DiGRA2015, the publication "Diversity of Play" provides a critical view on the current state of digital games from theoretical, artistic, and practical perspectives. With an interview with Karen Palmer and essays by Astrid Ensslin, Mathias Fuchs, Tanya Krzywinska, and Markus Rautzenberg, Diversity of Play explores the uncanny in games, the power of “unnatural” narratives, and the exceptions and uncertainties of digital ludic environments. See also: http://meson.press/books/diversity-of-play/

Gambling is in My Genes: Correlations between Personality Traits with Biological Basis and Digital Entertainment Choice

Online gaming sites like https://www.pikakasinotsuomi.com/ offer loads of bonuses to new players looking to join the site as well as daily promotions to keep things fresh and interesting for recurring players. Online gambling is one of the fastest growing areas in the digital entertainment industry. Slot gambling bets from a trusted site like batman138 with very abundant profits have always been the target of bettors every day. Due to the amount of traffic online casino slots in the USA receive many online casinos are able to offer better deals, bargains, and cool perks for their players. Gambling provides players with an intensely exciting experience and scholars see this as a primary cause of its attractiveness, and may play a role in the process of addiction. Finding a way to identify those more likely to gamble or check the satta king chart could be a first step towards discovering those who may be more likely to use certain genres of video games. This study used a sample of 93 college students to investigate whether personality traits believed to have their roots in biological differences can be used to predict one’s preference for gambling online. Results showed that Zuckerman’s Sensation Seeking Scale [27] and Lang’s Motivation Activation Measure [16] both had significant correlation with pathological online gambling symptoms based on DSM-IV [1] modified for online gambling, while only the Motivation Activation Measure significantly correlated with individual’s online gambling experience at sites like bonusetu.com. Implications of the findings for both the industry and health professionals are discussed.

GDC vs. DiGRA: Gaps in Game Production Research

Previous studies have revealed a gap between game research and industry game production. This article presents an analysis of this research gap using the tracks and summits at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) as a point of reference. The result shows that there are several areas where there exists very little research. The DiGRA conference is no exception – since 2006, only a handful of papers present empirics from game production. Studies are in particular rare for content producing areas, such as audio, visual arts, and narrative. There are plenty of opportunities for researchers to extract experiences and knowledge from game professionals and to identify problems to be addressed. To do this, collaboration models need to be established that endure non-disclosure agreements and crunch cultures.

Lessons Learned from Serious Game Jams Organized by DiGRA JAPAN

Foreword – Proceedings of DiGRA 2013 : DeFragging Game Studies

Classification of Gameplay Interaction in Digital Cultural Heritage

Digital heritage has matured over the past twenty years and now calls are being made for interactive experiences that augment digital representation with digital performance. The paper considers sources for such a performance: be it documented sources, contemporary cultures, or gameplay from other entertainment game genres. It considers the needs of various stakeholders: the archaeologist, the historian, the game designer and the target audience and suggests thematically consistent multiple gameplay options that serve the different needs while reusing game assets and characters. This aims to contribute to the collaboration with the DiGRA community on serious cultural heritage game development, focusing on the player as performer, rather than just as an observer.

“It Sucks for Me, and It Sucks for Them”: The Emotional Labor of Women Twitch Streamers

Increasing and sustaining women’s participation in gaming spheres is a persistent problem DiGRA audiences are familiar with. This paper looks at the barriers to increasing and sustaining women’s participation on Twitch through examining the experiences of women streamers. Emotional labor (Hochschild 1983) is used as a framework for interpreting how these women’s individual experiences resonate within larger societal contexts of work and play more broadly. The paper relies on data from 8 in-depth interviews with international, English-speaking women who receive a primary or secondary income source from Twitch streaming videogames. The results of this study show that participants performed emotional labor, on top of the mental and physical labor of playing videogames on a live stream, and this emotional labor has potential negative implications for the longevity of their streaming careers.

Serious Game Jam Operation Manual: Prototype Development and Evaluation

Serious Game Jam (SGJ) is one of the major events organized by DiGRA JAPAN every year since 2014. This study proposes a prototype SGJ operation manual. Although eight SGJ events have been organized so far, the first few events were conducted based on the manuals for a general game jam and the organizer’s experiences. However, considering the process of developing entertainment and serious games is different, an operation manual is required for organizers of SGJs.