{"title":"Gaming Sexism, Amanda Cote (2020)","authors":"Sydney Crowley","doi":"10.1386/jgvw_00066_5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jgvw_00066_5","url":null,"abstract":"Review of: Gaming Sexism, Amanda Cote (2020)\u0000 New York: University of New York Press, 274 pp.,\u0000 ISBN 978-1-47980-220-3, p/bk, USD 30.00","PeriodicalId":43635,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds","volume":"30 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81331409","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In fall, Americans were introduced to the first network game show employing virtual reality, aptly titled Alter Ego. Its premise, spinning off several prior reality shows, gave music performers opportunities to compete nationally, but this time contestants assumed the persona of an Alter Ego.
{"title":"Alter Ego reveals the future metaverse: Reality is fiction","authors":"P. Johnson","doi":"10.1386/jgvw_00065_3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jgvw_00065_3","url":null,"abstract":"In fall, Americans were introduced to the first network game show employing virtual reality, aptly titled Alter Ego. Its premise, spinning off several prior reality shows, gave music performers opportunities to compete nationally, but this time contestants assumed the persona of an Alter Ego.","PeriodicalId":43635,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds","volume":"9 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85254474","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper critically interrogates the claims of game-like elements in online brokerages through an interface analysis of three platforms, eToro, Plus500 and DeGiro. The 2021 GameStop Short Squeeze, where coordinated Redditors influenced financial markets through the mass purchase by individuals of ‘meme stock’, was made possible through the availability of retail trading platforms. One popular reading of the events saw it as ‘gamification’ of trading, without necessarily defining how the term is applicable. While we do not find evidence of direct gamification, we offer an explanation of why the gamification discourse persists. The platforms subtly deploying affective grammars linked to playfulness, thus creating a feeling of play without explicit game-like elements. In so doing, they are not just encouraging users to trade extensively, but are calling into question the epistemic distinction between investment and play, which has underpinned the development of finance since the eighteenth century.
本文通过对eToro、Plus500和DeGiro这三个平台的界面分析,批判性地审视了在线经纪中游戏类元素的主张。在2021年的GameStop Short Squeeze中,reddit用户通过个人大规模购买“meme股票”来影响金融市场,这是通过零售交易平台的可用性实现的。一种流行的解读是,这是交易的“游戏化”,但没有必要界定这个词的适用范围。虽然我们没有找到直接游戏化的证据,但我们对游戏化话语持续存在的原因做出了解释。这些平台巧妙地部署了与游戏性相关的情感语法,从而创造了一种没有明确游戏元素的游戏感。在这样做的过程中,它们不仅鼓励用户进行广泛的交易,而且还对投资和游戏之间的认知区别提出了质疑,这种区别自18世纪以来一直支撑着金融的发展。
{"title":"Financial playthings: Interrogating gamification in retail trading interfaces","authors":"Agustin Ferrari Braun, A. Gekker","doi":"10.1386/jgvw_00062_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jgvw_00062_1","url":null,"abstract":"This paper critically interrogates the claims of game-like elements in online brokerages through an interface analysis of three platforms, eToro, Plus500 and DeGiro. The 2021 GameStop Short Squeeze, where coordinated Redditors influenced financial markets through the mass purchase by individuals of ‘meme stock’, was made possible through the availability of retail trading platforms. One popular reading of the events saw it as ‘gamification’ of trading, without necessarily defining how the term is applicable. While we do not find evidence of direct gamification, we offer an explanation of why the gamification discourse persists. The platforms subtly deploying affective grammars linked to playfulness, thus creating a feeling of play without explicit game-like elements. In so doing, they are not just encouraging users to trade extensively, but are calling into question the epistemic distinction between investment and play, which has underpinned the development of finance since the eighteenth century.","PeriodicalId":43635,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds","volume":"53 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75776078","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article explores how atmosphere is implicated in the establishment of place in gameworlds through the concept of the ‘refrain’. The atmosphere of a video game is often one of the most memorable constituents of our ludic experiences and is defining of the video game places we encounter during play, yet atmospheres remain highly under-researched and under-theorized within game studies. The article introduces some key theories of atmosphere and explain their relation to ‘place’ and subsequently explore how ‘place’ has been theorized and developed within game studies. I then elaborate on how atmosphere, understood existentially, is conducive to the creation of an atmosphere by addressing the examples of Dark Souls’ hub area and boss arenas. Working through the Deleuze–Guattarian concept of ‘refrain’, I argue that patterns of sound, images and behaviours establish a territory marked by a certain affective intensity, or atmosphere, enabling the experience of place.
{"title":"‘This must be the place’: Understanding video game placeness through atmosphere and the refrain in Dark Souls","authors":"Andrea Andiloro","doi":"10.1386/jgvw_00058_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jgvw_00058_1","url":null,"abstract":"This article explores how atmosphere is implicated in the establishment of place in gameworlds through the concept of the ‘refrain’. The atmosphere of a video game is often one of the most memorable constituents of our ludic experiences and is defining of the video game places we encounter during play, yet atmospheres remain highly under-researched and under-theorized within game studies. The article introduces some key theories of atmosphere and explain their relation to ‘place’ and subsequently explore how ‘place’ has been theorized and developed within game studies. I then elaborate on how atmosphere, understood existentially, is conducive to the creation of an atmosphere by addressing the examples of Dark Souls’ hub area and boss arenas. Working through the Deleuze–Guattarian concept of ‘refrain’, I argue that patterns of sound, images and behaviours establish a territory marked by a certain affective intensity, or atmosphere, enabling the experience of place.","PeriodicalId":43635,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds","volume":"142 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76123876","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nowadays, the potential of games to promote well-being and social inclusion is already widely documented by research. Yet, how this potential can reach out to underrepresented communities, namely those with very specific accessibility needs, ensuring their participation, is still somewhat unexplored. The present article discusses accessibility, participation and inclusion as three pillars to address the relationship between gaming and intellectual disability (ID). Through this approach, more participatory models of game development and research are proposed, including the operationalization of the social model of disability and the relevance of the context. Therefore, it proposes concrete models, where accessibility is part of the creative process, to better include the voice of the player with ID into gameplay and ensure a final media object that, more than accessible, narratively represents the experience of having this disability.
{"title":"Intellectual disability through gaming: Operationalizing accessibility, participation and inclusion","authors":"Carla Sousa, J. Neves, M. Damásio","doi":"10.1386/jgvw_00055_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jgvw_00055_1","url":null,"abstract":"Nowadays, the potential of games to promote well-being and social inclusion is already widely documented by research. Yet, how this potential can reach out to underrepresented communities, namely those with very specific accessibility needs, ensuring their participation, is still somewhat unexplored. The present article discusses accessibility, participation and inclusion as three pillars to address the relationship between gaming and intellectual disability (ID). Through this approach, more participatory models of game development and research are proposed, including the operationalization of the social model of disability and the relevance of the context. Therefore, it proposes concrete models, where accessibility is part of the creative process, to better include the voice of the player with ID into gameplay and ensure a final media object that, more than accessible, narratively represents the experience of having this disability.","PeriodicalId":43635,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds","volume":"28 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79113253","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
M. West, Elizabeth L. Cohen, J. Banks, Alan K. Goodboy
Challenge is a key gratification sought in video games, and punishment by character death is often the repercussion for poor performance, requiring players to recover or restart. But some gamers go a step further and opt into games that feature permadeath: the permanent death of a game character with no opportunity to recover that character. These experiences may be emotionally taxing for players, but under some circumstances, they can enhance the meaningfulness of the play experience. Participants (N = 394) recruited from online gaming forums were randomly assigned to report on a past permadeath or temporary death gaming experience in order to help understand how the two forms of death experiences may differently impact affective responses, mortality salience and appreciation responses. Permadeath recollections were associated with increased appreciation, mediated by reported grief over the deaths. This indirect effect was stronger for those with stronger parasocial attachments to their characters and those with decreased tendencies to engage in trait meaning making. These findings hint that players less inclined to find meaning in everyday stressors could be more likely to derive meaning from their tragedies in game worlds.
{"title":"It’s all fun and games until somebody dies: Permadeath appreciation as a function of grief and mortality salience","authors":"M. West, Elizabeth L. Cohen, J. Banks, Alan K. Goodboy","doi":"10.1386/jgvw_00057_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jgvw_00057_1","url":null,"abstract":"Challenge is a key gratification sought in video games, and punishment by character death is often the repercussion for poor performance, requiring players to recover or restart. But some gamers go a step further and opt into games that feature permadeath: the permanent death of a game character with no opportunity to recover that character. These experiences may be emotionally taxing for players, but under some circumstances, they can enhance the meaningfulness of the play experience. Participants (N = 394) recruited from online gaming forums were randomly assigned to report on a past permadeath or temporary death gaming experience in order to help understand how the two forms of death experiences may differently impact affective responses, mortality salience and appreciation responses. Permadeath recollections were associated with increased appreciation, mediated by reported grief over the deaths. This indirect effect was stronger for those with stronger parasocial attachments to their characters and those with decreased tendencies to engage in trait meaning making. These findings hint that players less inclined to find meaning in everyday stressors could be more likely to derive meaning from their tragedies in game worlds.","PeriodicalId":43635,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76094640","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Many contemporary video games incorporate decision-making mechanics that can alter a game’s narrative experience for players. Often, these decisions challenge players to engage with questions of ethics, morality and empathy. Much of the previous research on moral decision-making in games assumes that players utilize real-world moral frameworks to make these decisions, without accounting for the way that game spaces function as unique sites for this type of decision-making. Video games can uniquely incentivize or punish players for their in-game decisions, shaping the way players engage with issues of morality. This study examines factors that influence how players approach moral decision-making in video games. Using semi-structured interviews with 24 individuals, we explored how both players’ real-world moral foundations and in-game constraints guide their moral decisions. Findings include how customizable avatars, subsequent playthroughs, in-game rewards and the manner in which a moral conflict is presented to players all influence their choices.
{"title":"Morality inside the matrix: A qualitative exploration of gamers’ moral considerations in video games","authors":"Arienne Ferchaud, Stephanie Orme, Emory S. Daniel","doi":"10.1386/jgvw_00056_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jgvw_00056_1","url":null,"abstract":"Many contemporary video games incorporate decision-making mechanics that can alter a game’s narrative experience for players. Often, these decisions challenge players to engage with questions of ethics, morality and empathy. Much of the previous research on moral decision-making in games assumes that players utilize real-world moral frameworks to make these decisions, without accounting for the way that game spaces function as unique sites for this type of decision-making. Video games can uniquely incentivize or punish players for their in-game decisions, shaping the way players engage with issues of morality. This study examines factors that influence how players approach moral decision-making in video games. Using semi-structured interviews with 24 individuals, we explored how both players’ real-world moral foundations and in-game constraints guide their moral decisions. Findings include how customizable avatars, subsequent playthroughs, in-game rewards and the manner in which a moral conflict is presented to players all influence their choices.","PeriodicalId":43635,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds","volume":"9 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81621750","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article explores elements of monstrosity in Yoko Taro’s NieR: Automata (Platinum Games 2017), arguing in specific that the main ‘monster’ is represented through an extreme distortion of humanity’s values and ideals. The analysis is supported by traditional literature regarding the monstrous and the monstrous-feminine, associated with the definition of dark play and its elements such as dehumanization, to conduct a close reading of NieR: Automata lore, visuals and mechanics. Through the analysis of Simone – a monstrous-feminine machine – as a key point in the journey of discovery enacted by player and game characters, we conclude that machines and androids’ intent understanding and performance of human values, such as beauty, love and consumerism, positions the player as the monster all along.
这篇文章探讨了Yoko Taro的《尼尔:机械纪元》(Platinum Games 2017)中的怪物元素,具体地说,主要的“怪物”是通过对人类价值观和理想的极端扭曲来表现的。这一分析得到了关于怪物和女性怪物的传统文献的支持,并与黑暗游戏的定义及其元素(如去人性化)相关联,从而对《尼尔:机器战士》的剧情、视觉效果和机制进行了深入的解读。通过对Simone这一怪物女性机器的分析,作为玩家和游戏角色发现之旅的关键点,我们得出结论,机器和机器人对人类价值观的意图理解和表现,如美、爱和消费主义,将玩家始终定位为怪物。
{"title":"The dark play of monstrosity in NieR: Automata","authors":"L. B. Lima, Dorota Walesa","doi":"10.1386/jgvw_00059_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jgvw_00059_1","url":null,"abstract":"This article explores elements of monstrosity in Yoko Taro’s NieR: Automata (Platinum Games 2017), arguing in specific that the main ‘monster’ is represented through an extreme distortion of humanity’s values and ideals. The analysis is supported by traditional literature regarding the monstrous and the monstrous-feminine, associated with the definition of dark play and its elements such as dehumanization, to conduct a close reading of NieR: Automata lore, visuals and mechanics. Through the analysis of Simone – a monstrous-feminine machine – as a key point in the journey of discovery enacted by player and game characters, we conclude that machines and androids’ intent understanding and performance of human values, such as beauty, love and consumerism, positions the player as the monster all along.","PeriodicalId":43635,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds","volume":"91 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79494954","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article proposes ludonarrative harmonies as an empirical approach for game analysis, using Cyberpunk 2077 as a case study. This approach scrutinizes the dynamic relationship between story and play elements in a game, as the relationship changes dynamically during gameplay between consonance and dissonance. In this article, consonance is defined as the degree of cohesion between ludic and narrative elements in a game, whereas dissonance would describe a counterpoint, be it conflictive, complementary or otherwise furthering the aesthetic experience. Incoherence between story and play is described here as ludonarrative cacophony. Although inspired by Hocking’s posit of ludonarrative dissonance, this approach uses dissonance to describe a dynamic between elements, rather than qualifying the gameplay experience as antagonistic to the critic’s sensibilities. The intention is to provide a tool to identify general patterns in the relationship between a game’s ludic and narrative components.
{"title":"Cyberpunk 2077: A case study of ludonarrative harmonies","authors":"Diego Saldivar","doi":"10.1386/jgvw_00050_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jgvw_00050_1","url":null,"abstract":"This article proposes ludonarrative harmonies as an empirical approach for game analysis, using Cyberpunk 2077 as a case study. This approach scrutinizes the dynamic relationship between story and play elements in a game, as the relationship changes dynamically during gameplay\u0000 between consonance and dissonance. In this article, consonance is defined as the degree of cohesion between ludic and narrative elements in a game, whereas dissonance would describe a counterpoint, be it conflictive, complementary or otherwise furthering the aesthetic experience. Incoherence\u0000 between story and play is described here as ludonarrative cacophony. Although inspired by Hocking’s posit of ludonarrative dissonance, this approach uses dissonance to describe a dynamic between elements, rather than qualifying the gameplay experience as antagonistic to the critic’s\u0000 sensibilities. The intention is to provide a tool to identify general patterns in the relationship between a game’s ludic and narrative components.","PeriodicalId":43635,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds","volume":"30 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73897690","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}