Pub Date : 2024-04-10DOI: 10.1177/15554120241244416
Jessica E. Tompkins, Ashley ML Guajardo (née Brown)
Within fandoms, gatekeeping practices such as delineating authentic from fake fans filter out certain identities. While the types of fans excluded vary by fandom, mainstream digital games culture–and the hegemonic, masculine groups within it–frequently leverage gatekeeping tactics like harassment to silence or churn others (i.e., women) from participating. While there has been considerable scholarship documenting gatekeeping in online digital games there has been less examination of this occurring within video game fandom. We conducted an exploratory study to investigate gatekeeping in response to TikTok videos about Call of Duty's masculine operator Ghost. We found more comments qualifying as celebratory fun than gatekeeping. We argue that social media spaces by virtue of their recommendation algorithms are productive sites for reimagining games counter to affirmational readings within relatively niche communities.
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Pub Date : 2024-04-03DOI: 10.1177/15554120241237303
Ben S. Bunting
In his book The New Nature of Maps: Essays in the History of Cartography, J.B. Harley writes that “Maps are preeminently a language of power, not of protest.” Harley was writing about maps of the physical world, but most game maps also speak in “languages of power,” and for similar reasons; however, this is not always the case. In this paper, I discuss how and why Harley's rubric also applies to game maps. Ultimately, I highlight the unique value of the minority of video games that speak in “languages of protest,” thus allowing us to play – sometimes figuratively, and sometimes literally – with our traditional understanding of maps.
J.B. Harley 在其著作《地图的新本质》（The New Nature of Maps：一书中，J.B. Harley 写道："地图首先是一种权力语言，而不是抗议语言。哈雷写的是物理世界的地图，但大多数游戏地图也使用 "权力语言"，原因也类似；不过，情况并非总是如此。在本文中，我将讨论哈雷的标准如何以及为什么也适用于游戏地图。最后，我强调了少数使用 "抗议语言 "的视频游戏的独特价值，它们允许我们玩弄我们对地图的传统理解--有时是象征性的，有时是字面意义上的。
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Pub Date : 2024-04-01DOI: 10.1177/15554120241238771
Steve Spence
A focus on the work of adaptation illuminates narrative innovations in Naughty Dog's PlayStation 3 game The Last of Us, its sequel, The Last of Us Part II, and the original game's transcoding as a nine-episode season of “quality television” by the American cable network Home Box Office (HBO). HBO's showrunners employed the distinct affordances of television to adapt core game themes regarding both ludic and real-life violence. Close comparisons with the game shed light on the wellsprings of the show's success, and they also highlight distinctive qualities of videogames as a storytelling medium. Naughty Dog's sequel also adapted the first game, using its complex, recursive narration to amend and complicate key moments from the original story. This narrative strategy reveals the influence of quality television, and it also enables the sequel to extend the first game's critique of violence's pleasures and their enabling justifications.
顽皮狗的 PlayStation 3 游戏《最后的我们》及其续集《最后的我们第二部》，以及美国有线电视网 Home Box Office（HBO）将原游戏转码为九集 "优质电视 "季的过程中，对改编工作的关注揭示了叙事上的创新。HBO 的节目编导们利用电视的独特优势，改编了游戏中关于荒诞和现实暴力的核心主题。通过与游戏的近距离比较，我们发现了该剧成功的根源，同时也凸显了电子游戏作为叙事媒介的独特品质。顽皮狗的续集也对第一部游戏进行了改编，利用其复杂、递归的叙事方式对原故事的关键时刻进行了修正和复杂化。这种叙事策略揭示了优质电视的影响，也使续集得以延伸第一部游戏对暴力乐趣及其有利理由的批判。
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Pub Date : 2024-04-01DOI: 10.1177/15554120241236531
Dmitri Williams, Mingxuan Liu, Sukyoung Choi, Nicholas Bowman, Sonia Jawaid Shaikh
Amidst the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic, video games were used heavily, presumably to help cope with negative moods and social isolation. This study sought to understand the implications of such play on well-being within a particular sample. Drawing on uses and gratifications and self-determination theories, the study adopted a longitudinal perspective incorporating data from one game, both before and during the pandemic. Data included both repeated cross-sectional surveys as well as unobtrusive, within-game measures. Among players of a marginally social, large-scale, team-based vehicle combat game (World of Tanks), play time increased slightly while well-being was generally steady. Increases in play were associated with increases in competence, which in turn lead to higher well-being. The theoretical implications and generalizability of the findings are discussed.
{"title":"Playing Through the Pandemic: Gaming Usage as a Buffer During COVID-19","authors":"Dmitri Williams, Mingxuan Liu, Sukyoung Choi, Nicholas Bowman, Sonia Jawaid Shaikh","doi":"10.1177/15554120241236531","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120241236531","url":null,"abstract":"Amidst the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic, video games were used heavily, presumably to help cope with negative moods and social isolation. This study sought to understand the implications of such play on well-being within a particular sample. Drawing on uses and gratifications and self-determination theories, the study adopted a longitudinal perspective incorporating data from one game, both before and during the pandemic. Data included both repeated cross-sectional surveys as well as unobtrusive, within-game measures. Among players of a marginally social, large-scale, team-based vehicle combat game (World of Tanks), play time increased slightly while well-being was generally steady. Increases in play were associated with increases in competence, which in turn lead to higher well-being. The theoretical implications and generalizability of the findings are discussed.","PeriodicalId":12634,"journal":{"name":"Games and Culture","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2024-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140593623","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-04-01DOI: 10.1177/15554120241241555
Rogerio de Leon Pereira, Olivier Tremblay-Savard
Rewards are prevalent game design elements in gamified environments. Rewards are helpful tools to keep players engaged and encouraged to perform tasks. However, implementing a reward system from scratch in every gamified environment, such as citizen science games or educational applications, can be time-consuming. This article presents FORGE, a Framework for Organizing Rewards in Gamified Environments. FORGE is a free and open-source framework built to be easy to install, easy to integrate, flexible and customizable. It was designed to be used in a variety of different environments and scenarios, such as games, training software and interactive websites. The FORGE framework comes with two sample applications, a simple game concept and an educational web application, to demonstrate its capabilities and serve as an entry point for new adopters.
{"title":"FORGE: A Framework for Organizing Rewards in Gamified Environments","authors":"Rogerio de Leon Pereira, Olivier Tremblay-Savard","doi":"10.1177/15554120241241555","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120241241555","url":null,"abstract":"Rewards are prevalent game design elements in gamified environments. Rewards are helpful tools to keep players engaged and encouraged to perform tasks. However, implementing a reward system from scratch in every gamified environment, such as citizen science games or educational applications, can be time-consuming. This article presents FORGE, a Framework for Organizing Rewards in Gamified Environments. FORGE is a free and open-source framework built to be easy to install, easy to integrate, flexible and customizable. It was designed to be used in a variety of different environments and scenarios, such as games, training software and interactive websites. The FORGE framework comes with two sample applications, a simple game concept and an educational web application, to demonstrate its capabilities and serve as an entry point for new adopters.","PeriodicalId":12634,"journal":{"name":"Games and Culture","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2024-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140602915","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-04-01DOI: 10.1177/15554120241239365
Ricardo Martins
Video games have emerged as one of the most ubiquitous forms of media globally, exerting a considerable influence on our perceptions of other cultures. However, contemporary video games have perpetuated negative stereotypes about Brazilian favelas and their residents, prioritizing aesthetics and themes that fetishize poverty, precarity, and violence. This essay critically examines the (mis)representations of Brazilian favelas in video games, exploring their far-reaching implications for global perceptions of favelas and their residents, and their role in perpetuating negative stereotypes.
{"title":"Desire and Delusion: Fetish of Brazilian Favela in Videogame (Mis)representation","authors":"Ricardo Martins","doi":"10.1177/15554120241239365","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120241239365","url":null,"abstract":"Video games have emerged as one of the most ubiquitous forms of media globally, exerting a considerable influence on our perceptions of other cultures. However, contemporary video games have perpetuated negative stereotypes about Brazilian favelas and their residents, prioritizing aesthetics and themes that fetishize poverty, precarity, and violence. This essay critically examines the (mis)representations of Brazilian favelas in video games, exploring their far-reaching implications for global perceptions of favelas and their residents, and their role in perpetuating negative stereotypes.","PeriodicalId":12634,"journal":{"name":"Games and Culture","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2024-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140593530","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-03-20DOI: 10.1177/15554120241240018
Ryan Banfi
This essay examines the influence of the pinball industry's late twentieth-century decline on Disco Elysium's (ZA/UM, 2019) narrative. Reference points to pinball must be sought out in Disco Elysium as they are hidden, but once found they implore the player to consider the downfall of games. Gleaning from academic work on ZA/UM's text, archival research, pinball history, and by using formal narrative analysis this paper explains how the downturn of the pinball industry conveys Disco Elysium's political strife—namely capitalism's detrimental influence on the fictional district of Martinaise.
{"title":"Disco Pinball: Declining Games and Depression in Disco Elysium","authors":"Ryan Banfi","doi":"10.1177/15554120241240018","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120241240018","url":null,"abstract":"This essay examines the influence of the pinball industry's late twentieth-century decline on Disco Elysium's (ZA/UM, 2019) narrative. Reference points to pinball must be sought out in Disco Elysium as they are hidden, but once found they implore the player to consider the downfall of games. Gleaning from academic work on ZA/UM's text, archival research, pinball history, and by using formal narrative analysis this paper explains how the downturn of the pinball industry conveys Disco Elysium's political strife—namely capitalism's detrimental influence on the fictional district of Martinaise.","PeriodicalId":12634,"journal":{"name":"Games and Culture","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2024-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140198685","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-03-20DOI: 10.1177/15554120241240101
Audrey Michelle Curry
Hideo Kojima's 2019 video game Death Stranding has sold over 10 million copies since 2022. The game's plot features a post-apocalyptic United States where female bodies become commodities to produce babies, which the government utilizes as equipment to rebuild the country. The purpose of this paper is to analyze how the government's, the terrorists’, and the player character's words and actions reinforce or reject traditional patriarchal views about reproduction. I first establish a background in post-apocalyptic narratives by synthesizing themes from The Handmaid's Tale, The Road, and The Walking Dead. Using feminist post-structuralism, I analyze how reproductive commodification is prioritized over ethics by the government, rejected in favor of general destruction to the greater good by the terrorists, and is used only when absolutely necessary by the player character. I finally argue that commodification narratives are typical within post-apocalyptic narratives, are harmful, and have the potential to influence real-world politics.
{"title":"Bridge Babies and Rebuilding America: Reproductive Commodification in Death Stranding","authors":"Audrey Michelle Curry","doi":"10.1177/15554120241240101","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120241240101","url":null,"abstract":"Hideo Kojima's 2019 video game Death Stranding has sold over 10 million copies since 2022. The game's plot features a post-apocalyptic United States where female bodies become commodities to produce babies, which the government utilizes as equipment to rebuild the country. The purpose of this paper is to analyze how the government's, the terrorists’, and the player character's words and actions reinforce or reject traditional patriarchal views about reproduction. I first establish a background in post-apocalyptic narratives by synthesizing themes from The Handmaid's Tale, The Road, and The Walking Dead. Using feminist post-structuralism, I analyze how reproductive commodification is prioritized over ethics by the government, rejected in favor of general destruction to the greater good by the terrorists, and is used only when absolutely necessary by the player character. I finally argue that commodification narratives are typical within post-apocalyptic narratives, are harmful, and have the potential to influence real-world politics.","PeriodicalId":12634,"journal":{"name":"Games and Culture","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2024-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140198729","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-03-04DOI: 10.1177/15554120241235437
Mienke Fouché
Player experiences of minimalist video games are not well documented. This article addresses this gap by exploring players’ experiences of the minimalist horror video game Iron Lung. This game is identified as employing unique methods of gameplay toward affecting players. A case study design was framed using Caroux et al.’s player–video game interactions and Nealen et al.’s minimalist video game design characteristics and observed through affect theory to consider how bodies (video games) affect other bodies (players). A selection of player reviews was thematically analyzed, and three video streams were observed and analyzed. Results demonstrate that most players were affected as the developer intended using obfuscation, deliberately clumsy mechanics, and unique gameplay pacing. This article contributes to the field of minimalist design by filling the gap of player experiences of minimalist game design. This is useful to video game designers, minimalist designers, interactive experience designers, scenographers, or environmental design specialists.
{"title":"Player Experience of Minimalist Video Game Design: Case Study of Indie Horror Iron Lung","authors":"Mienke Fouché","doi":"10.1177/15554120241235437","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120241235437","url":null,"abstract":"Player experiences of minimalist video games are not well documented. This article addresses this gap by exploring players’ experiences of the minimalist horror video game Iron Lung. This game is identified as employing unique methods of gameplay toward affecting players. A case study design was framed using Caroux et al.’s player–video game interactions and Nealen et al.’s minimalist video game design characteristics and observed through affect theory to consider how bodies (video games) affect other bodies (players). A selection of player reviews was thematically analyzed, and three video streams were observed and analyzed. Results demonstrate that most players were affected as the developer intended using obfuscation, deliberately clumsy mechanics, and unique gameplay pacing. This article contributes to the field of minimalist design by filling the gap of player experiences of minimalist game design. This is useful to video game designers, minimalist designers, interactive experience designers, scenographers, or environmental design specialists.","PeriodicalId":12634,"journal":{"name":"Games and Culture","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2024-03-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140032940","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-03-04DOI: 10.1177/15554120241233865
Gorm Lai, Ilaria Vecchi
In a fast-paced world of ever-changing trends, connecting historical roots by linking new movements to existing traditions can be a challenge. Similarly to how Mary Flanagan’s book “Critical Play” situates and contextualizes play in history, we propose and start similar work on game jams. While we don’t have as much room for self-expression in a paper, we focus on two main contributions. The first is to link existing definitions of game jamming and creativity. Secondly, we show how game jams build upon existing traditions of co-creation—sharing and confronting ideas with peers by using formal constraints to fuel creativity and direct the process. To this end, we examine four historic movements—the Danish film movement Dogma ’95, creators of audio visual programs from the demo scene, OuBaPo a group of French comic book writers, and the Japanese renga poets—and relate them to game jams.
{"title":"Formal Constraints and Creativity: Connecting Game Jams, Dogma ’95, the Demo Scene, OuBaPo, and Renga poets","authors":"Gorm Lai, Ilaria Vecchi","doi":"10.1177/15554120241233865","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120241233865","url":null,"abstract":"In a fast-paced world of ever-changing trends, connecting historical roots by linking new movements to existing traditions can be a challenge. Similarly to how Mary Flanagan’s book “Critical Play” situates and contextualizes play in history, we propose and start similar work on game jams. While we don’t have as much room for self-expression in a paper, we focus on two main contributions. The first is to link existing definitions of game jamming and creativity. Secondly, we show how game jams build upon existing traditions of co-creation—sharing and confronting ideas with peers by using formal constraints to fuel creativity and direct the process. To this end, we examine four historic movements—the Danish film movement Dogma ’95, creators of audio visual programs from the demo scene, OuBaPo a group of French comic book writers, and the Japanese renga poets—and relate them to game jams.","PeriodicalId":12634,"journal":{"name":"Games and Culture","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2024-03-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140032911","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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