Moloch's Gauntlet: New Undergraduate Pedagogical Perspectives in Minecraft

Video games in higher education settings are generally played to impart and test concepts. The game’s affordances and limitations define what is expected of the student-player. When the game itself is played with, rather than simply played, this reframing deepens student engagement with the learning process. By creating a collaborative learning experience in the form of a Minecraft escape room called Moloch's Gauntlet, we redefine the game's potential as a university-level pedagogical tool. Over the course of this paper we demonstrate that through dismantling the game’s representational aesthetics; selectively concealing and revealing the game’s mechanisms; and approaching Minecraft as an open platform that makes the iterative game design process accessible, classroom use of video games can be reframed from teaching tools to thinking tools

The Rise and Fall of Gaming Houses: Content Creation, Precarity, and Professionalization in Esports

In this article, I provide an ethnographic description of an important, enduring, but shifting entity in esports culture: the gaming house. Moreover, I seek to situate esports gaming houses - cooperative living arrangements for players - within a broader cultural and economic space of precarity. Drawing on interviews, YouTube gaming house tours, news articles, and scholarly research, I chart the changes experienced by esports’ gaming houses as the industry professionalizes. Moreover, I consider the scholarship on whether or not gaming houses have helped combat the precarity from which they arise

In the Shadow of Violent Men: Emancipation and Moral Autonomy in The Last of Us and The Last of Us Part II

This paper offers an interpretation of The Last of Us and The Last of Us Part II as narratives of moral emancipation from patriarchal structures. It argues that the protagonists, Ellie and Abby, participate in the construction of each other’s moral agency and autonomy, while navigating their complex gender identities and attempting to break the cycles of violence and retaliation initiated by their fathers. Neither character succeeds in the end. Indeed, the games’ main argument is that if moral autonomy is ever within reach, it is not on individualistic or universalistic terms; that is, that the notion itself of being autonomous is necessarily relational, gradual, and situated within the gender politics of each character’s moral particularity

Maximizing Efficiency in Game Development Through Art Styles, AI Integration, and Creative Expression

In the increasingly competitive landscape of the games industry, working efficiently is essential for ensuring products meet audience expectations and work as intended. Various elements can play a key role when attempting to develop games smoothly and successfully, as time, money and technical capabilities can be very limiting factors that can require careful considerations. For the purpose of this research, this paper will explore three key examples of such elements, which are art styles, AI tools and the role of creative expression during the development process. Each of these examples can be notable factors towards streamlining production tasks and accelerating development, which can be especially important in the fast and competitive games industry. The choice of an art style, for instance, can save time, effort and costs while also being more optimal for performance and for supporting a chosen theme. The role of creative expression is also something that shouldn’t be understated, as it can be vital for finding solutions to solve problems, as well as prevent other potential issues. Finally, AI tools have demonstrated significant potential and numerous possibilities in streamlining various tasks related to the games industry, such as programming, artistic production and organizing data. By analysing these three elements - art styles, AI tools, and creative expression, this paper will aim to provide a stronger understanding of how they can contribute to ensuring a more efficient development process when making games

Espionnage réfléchi : le choix du joueur, l'affect et le walking simulator

In the past decade, “walking simulator” has evolved from an insult to a critically and commercially successful genre of games. Through subversive mechanics and an emphasis on immersive, affective storytelling, these games are well-situated to explore LGBTQ+ narratives and queer forms of play (Ruberg, 2019). This paper unpacks the affective implications of games that urge the player to “snoop around” personal spaces, including Gone Home (Fullbright, 2013), What Remains of Edith Finch (Giant Sparrow, 2017), and A Normal Lost Phone (Accidental Queens, 2017). After a broad overview of the genre and relevant scholarship, the author examines the emotional impact of ludic “snooping”. Specifically, the author considers how games centring this mechanic simulate intimacy (while problematizing consent), engage agency through interaction and movement, and harness a disorienting atmosphere in their storytelling. Finally, the paper reflects on how character identification can be understood in the context of “games for change”, so-called empathy games, and the need to move towards a more thoughtful engagement with queer affect. This paper touches on each of these issues with a broad, interdisciplinary approach rooted in rhetoric, close reading, and queer theory

Participatory Arts-based Game Design: Mela, a Serious Game to Address SGBV in Ethiopia

The emerging body of work on participatory game design (PGD) highlights the significance of working with end-users’ voices as the starting point. This is particularly critical in serious games that seek to impact social change in areas such as sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). This article, which is based on fieldwork with 16 college instructors in four agricultural colleges in rural Ethiopia, draws together concepts of participatory visual methods (particularly cellphilming), PGD and a game universe perspective to offer an engaging and interactive approach to the design of serious games. We refer to this as ‘Participatory Arts-based Game Design’ (PAGD), an approach that was used to create Mela, a serious game to address SGBV in Ethiopian agriculture colleges. Exploring Mela game’s participatory and engaging design process, this article offers a framework for serious game development to address critical social change issues that go beyond the game itself. It has the potential to not only place the end-users at the centre but to recognize the critical role of engagement and immersivity in a field oriented towards impact and sustainability

Ubisoft’s Notre-Dame:: Digital Gaming for Material Heritage’s Sake

In 2019, the Notre-Dame de Paris was devastated by a fire. The importance of the Notre-Dame as world heritage was underlined by the countless contributions, donations and solidarity all around the world that pledged to help to rebuild the cathedral. Among all contributions Ubisoft’s idea to offer its game Assassin's Creed: Unity for free to the public was arguably most celebrated as innovative and creative measure to secure heritage in case of its destruction. This case opens up new perspectives and roles of heritage management as also the development and distribution of video games in the twenty first century. The case of Ubisoft’s Notre-Dame is discussed in this paper under a comparative analysis to the game Never Alone and a critical inquiry towards the benefits, consequences and repercussions of the growing importance of synchronising heritage protection with video game production. Also, the perceptive aspect of connecting to heritage as player through a game and its spatial aspects will be explained under Chapman’s concept of narrative gardens

At the Heart of the Mothercrystal: Final Fantasy XIV’s Approach to Localization and Lore as a Virtual Contact Zone

Virtual worlds, and MMORPGs in particular, rely on players having a shared knowledge of mechanics, features, lore, and narrative within their virtual worlds. In examining the localization practices of a specific MMORPG, Final Fantasy XIV (2013-Present), this paper argues that virtual worlds utilize localization in order to construct a virtual contact zone, an extension of Pratt's conception. In addition, localization allows players from various linguistic backgrounds to have a shared sense of understanding of the world through narrative elements, specifically worldbuilding and story elements usually classified as lore. This understanding extends to not only the space within the virtual world, but any narrative that is tied to the world, such as is the case is many MMORPG

“I've been having these weird thoughts lately...”: Conspiratorial hermeneutics and reflexive depictions of fan practices in the Kingdom Hearts franchise

This paper draws on the theory of mastermind narration developed by M.J. Clarke in the context of prestige television dramas with highly complex non-linear narratives and inconsistent characters (Clarke, 2012) to offer a reading of the Kingdom Hearts (Square Enix, 2002-) franchise in light of postmodern practices of textual consumption characteristic of current fandoms, such as those explored by Henry Jenkins (2006) and Matt Hills (2002), but also addressing Japanese theorist Hiroki Azuma’s (2009) work around the notion of the Otaku. I argue that the series’ significant deviation from Disney’s traditional approach to narrative (Wasko 2001) indicates a desire for the corporation to explore radical new forms of textual production and to negotiate emerging fan consumption practices within the safe environment of a controlled and licensed text. Just as cultural theorists like Clarke and Anne Allison (2006) argue that a textual product can often contain traces that reflect its wider conditions of production, I propose that the Kingdom Hearts franchise can be read allegorically as an extended experiment by Disney into new forms of collaborative storytelling

Kingdom(s) Come: Character Remediations and Polyperspectivity of the Final Fantasy franchise in Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II

Over twenty years since its original release, Final Fantasy VII (Square 1987) fans continue to debate the video game’s world and characters as they are mixed and remixed into new licensed products. This article explores the fan metanarrative that circulates the story, ludology, and industry discourses that bind Final Fantasy VII. It will demonstrate how fan practices operate within community spaces to locate, present, and police both knowledge and meanings about a fictional world that itself is continually being reshaped by the transmedia production milieu. This article explores the ongoing fan debates circulating characters Cloud, Tifa, and Aerith from Final Fantasy VII, and their respective remixing into the Kingdom Hearts franchise. Through a discourse analysis (Gee, 2007) of online Western fan bases, published above-the-line production interviews (Mayer et al. 2009), and self-reflexive experiences (Hills 2002), I seek to demonstrate the complexity of fan practices and how they attempt to locate (and generate) narrative coherency. I will argue that fans do not simply enjoy games for their variance in gameplay and story but seek a better understanding of a growing fictional world that is complex and is subject to sanctioned rewrites. Drawing on Eiji Ōtsuka’s theories on world and variation (2010), this article will demonstrate how fans can function as textual barristers in their attempts to untangle the media mix (Steinberg, 2012) of Final Fantasy VII through its ongoing reiterations, adaptations, and world-sharing with Kingdom Hearts