Digital Library Publication Archives
- Proceedings of DiGRA23
Search results for: http://www.digra.org/dl/db/12168.20295.pdf
- 1506 articles or papers
Gameplay Rhetoric: A Study of the Construction of Satirical and Associational Meaning in Short Computer Games for the WWW
Madsen Helene Johansson Troels Degn
2002 Computer Games and Digital Cultures Conference Proceedings
This paper maps out the construction of non-narrative rhetorical meaning in short computer games. Setting off from the recent emergence of short satirical computer games on the World Wide Web, it observes that at least some computer games do have potentials as a medium of artistic expression; that regardless of the possible narrative powers of computer games. Drawing on Leonard Feinberg's categories of satire and George Lakoff's theory of metaphor, the article describes the basic rhetorical mechanisms of satire and association in computer games and suggests that satire and especially allegorical association in this context appear as two sides of a common theme: the call for immortality and the mastery of computer games.
Framing Games
Waern Annika
2012 DiGRA Nordic '12: Proceedings of 2012 International DiGRA Nordic Conference
In this article, I revisit the everlasting question of what constitutes a game. My purpose is to arrive at a permissive definition that can serve to bridge digital and non-digital game studies. The way I approach the issue is through eliciting the qualities of games for which I believe game studies provides appropriate tools. The article centres on the idea that games are systems, which have been designed to be played or evolved within a play practice. I use previous literature to carefully examine what is required from a game system, as well as what signifies play in relationship to other human activities. The strength of game studies is that it has developed ways to understand how these two aspects are interrelated - how play is shaped by systems, and how systems need to be constructed to support play.
More Than A Craze: Photographs of New Zealand’s early digital games scene
Swalwell Melanie
2011 DiGRA '11 - Proceedings of the 2011 DiGRA International Conference: Think Design Play
"More Than A Craze" is an online exhibition consisting of 46 photographs of New Zealand's early digital games scene, in the 1980s. The exhibition includes the work of some of New Zealand's best known documentary photographers – Ans Westra, Christopher Matthews, Robin Morrison – with images from the archives of Wellington's Evening Post and Auckland's Fairfax newspapers. These photographers captured images of games, gamers and gameplay in the moment when these were novel. These images are significant in that they offer insights into the early days of digital games. They are an important primary source material for researchers interested in the history of play and interactive entertainment. The exhibition has been curated by Melanie Swalwell and Janet Bayly. It is an online exhibition, hosted by Mahara Gallery, Waikanae (http://www.maharagallery.org.nz). It is one of the outcomes of Swalwell's research into the history of digital games in New Zealand, in the 1980s.
Three Shadowed Dimensions of Feminine Presence in Video Games
Cosima Rughiniș Răzvan Rughiniș Toma Elisabeta
2016 DiGRA/FDG '16 - Proceedings of the First International Joint Conference of DiGRA and FDG
Representations of femininity in video games and other media are often discussed with reference to the most popular games, their protagonists and their sexist predicament. This framing leaves in shadow other dimensions. We aim to identify some of them and to open a broader horizon for examining and designing femininity and gender in games. To this end we look into games with creative portrayals of feminine characters, diverging from the action-woman trope: The Walking Dead, The Path, and 80 Days. We talk in dialogue with scholars, but also with a digital crowd-critique movement for films and games, loosely centered on instruments such as the Bechdel-Wallace test and the TV Tropes.org wiki. We argue that the central analytical dimension of female character strength should be accompanied by three new axes, in order to examine feminine presence across ages, in the background fictive world created by the game, and in network edges of interaction.
The Cheating Assemblage in MMORPGs: Toward a sociotechnical description of cheating
Paoli Stefano De Kerr Aphra
2009 DiGRA '09 - Proceedings of the 2009 DiGRA International Conference: Breaking New Ground: Innovation in Games, Play, Practice and Theory
This paper theoretically and empirically explores cheating in MMORPGs. This paper conceptualises cheating in MMORPGs as a sociotechnical practice which draws upon a non-linear assemblage of human actors and non-human artefacts, in which the practice of cheating is the result or the outcome of an assemblage. We draw upon the assemblage conceptualizations proposed in [16] and [8] and on empirical data taken from a pilot study we have conducted during the period September-November 2008 and from an ethnography we are conducting in the MMORPG Tibia (http://www.tibia.com) since January 2009. This game in particular was chosen because CipSoft, the company that develops the game, launched an anticheating campaign at the beginning of 2009.
Buy and Share! Social Network Games and Ludic Shopping
de Andrade e Silva Suen
2012 DiGRA Nordic '12: Proceedings of 2012 International DiGRA Nordic Conference
By developing the concept of ludic shopping, this paper explores how the centring of gameplay around the (symbolic) purchase of virtual goods has transformed social network games into a blending of consumerism and playfulness. Although ludic shopping points out the capitalistic logic of consumption embedded on social network games, this concept brings also a positive view about consumption as part of players’ identity construction. I drawn on the player types defined by game theorists Richard Bartle and Espen Aarseth to examine the main forms of enjoyment offered by social network games, and to present a new conceptual dimension linked to consumerism. Through a critical analysis of both game mechanics and players’ motivations, I argue that symbolic consumerism is a central experience for players of social network games.
Domesticating Play, Designing Everyday Life: The Practice and Performance of Family Gender, and Gaming
Enevold Jessica
2012 DiGRA Nordic '12: Proceedings of 2012 International DiGRA Nordic Conference
Playing digital games is now a common everyday practice in many homes. This paper deals with the constitution of such practices by taking a closer look at the material objects essential to play and their role in the “design of everyday life” (Shove et al 2007). It uses ethnographic method and anthropological practice theory to attend to the domestic spaces of leisure and play, the home environments, in which the large part of today’s practices of playing digital games takes place. It focuses on the stagings of material, not virtual, artifacts of gaming: screens, consoles, hand-held-devices essential to play and their locations and movements around the home. It demonstrates how everyday practices, seemingly mundane scenographies and choreographies, practically, aesthetically and technologically determined, order everyday space-time and artifacts, domesticate play and condition performances of family, gender and gaming. In the process, a history of the domestication of play unfolds.
Rating Logic Puzzle Difficulty Automatically in a Human Perspective
Wang Hao Wang Yu-Wen Sun Chuen-Tsai
2012 DiGRA Nordic '12: Proceedings of 2012 International DiGRA Nordic Conference
Logic puzzle games like Sudoku are getting popular for they are flexible in playing time and space and are useful in education. For puzzles, difficulty is arguably one of the most important factors in problem design. A problem too easy is boring, yet a problem too hard is frustrating. Providing problems with adequate difficulty to avoid boredom or anxiety is thus an important issue. In this paper we rate difficulty level of Sudoku problems with human oriented, general difficulty criteria so that the method can be used to evaluate problems of most logic puzzles. Only few previous Sudoku difficulty research are based on real playing data and the rating methods are limited to Sudoku or at most, constraint satisfaction problems (CSP). We found that the proposed method, despite of its simplicity and generality, can sort Sudoku problems in an order similar to average player solving time, the player perceived difficulty.
The Stereotype of Online Gamers: New Characterization or Recycled Prototype?
Kowert Rachel Oldmeadow Julian
2012 DiGRA Nordic '12: Proceedings of 2012 International DiGRA Nordic Conference
The stereotypical online gamer is a socially inept, reclusive, male, with an obsession for gaming. This characterization is shared with a number of other groups too, suggesting it reflects a set of behaviors and concerns common to a range of groups. This study examines the content of the stereotype of online gamers in relation to other similar groups in an attempt to identify the core behaviors or characteristics upon which the stereotype is based. By comparing the similarities and differences in the stereotypes of a range of related groups it is possible to identify the shared and unique features of online gamers that are being reflected in stereotypes about them. Results show similarities in stereotypic content between online gamers and other social groups, including other kinds of gamers. Additionally, the characteristic of social ineptitude, which is a key trait in the stereotype of this group, did not emerge as a distinctive feature for online gamers alone, questioning the unique role that mediated socialization plays in these spaces. Implications for future research within the online gaming population are discussed.
Affordances of Elliptical Learning in Arcade Video Games
Hock-koon Sébastien
2012 DiGRA Nordic '12: Proceedings of 2012 International DiGRA Nordic Conference
Many researchers consider that video games have a unique potential for learning. However, Linderoth (2010) criticizes the way researchers link a successful action in the game and learning, without denying this conclusion. Using Gibson’s affordances (1979), he argues that, in order to study learning in a video game, one must carefully study the game itself. This article attempts to understand how “great video games” (Kunkel, 2003) may take “a minute to learn and a lifetime to master.” As a part of my Ph.D research, I trained for six months to perform a one-credit run on the Alien Vs. Predator (Capcom, 1994) arcade game. This expertise will be used to study affordances of learning and non-learning in this video game in order to introduce the concept of “elliptical learning”.