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 Cybiko Computer:: Precursor to Today’s Mobile Devices?

Developed by Montfort and Bogost (2009) for their research on the Atari Video Computer System, platform studies analyzes the hardware and software environment through which media are interacted with. However, there needs to be more research in this area focusing on early mobile media platforms. This article considers the Cybiko Computer, a short-lived handheld computer marketed primarily to youth in the United States in the early 2000s. Featuring a monochrome LCD screen and a small QWERTY keyboard, the Cybiko was an early example of a device capable of various gaming, utility, and communication functions through numerous applications well before such multifunctionality became standard among mobile devices. These many applications were provided for free through Cybiko’s website, similar to modern app stores. The device was also promoted as an open platform for developers, leading to a variety of 3rd party applications. The Cybiko could also serve as an MP3 player via an add-on accessory. These features, mirroring those of later smartphone devices, should have seemingly ensured Cybiko's success. However, ineffective and inconsistent marketing, lack of cellular connectivity, and the rapid release of an upgraded version one year after the device’s debut led to its failure. Despite this, the Cybiko is a significant case study providing insight into how a device ahead of its time in terms of features can fail to gain wide adoption

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

Examining the Bordered Heterocosm of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: Spaces, Boundaries, Transgression and Sociocultural Significance

This article explores the video game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, examining its bordered heterocosm by carefully looking at how in-game cities are constructed and how certain spaces within them can be regarded as heterotopias, thus denouncing and exposing sociocultural inequalities, which are enforced and maintained through numerous physical and abstract boundaries. Then, the role of the Dragonborn will be taken into consideration, so as to understand how this character, as the video game’s protagonist, transgresses these same boundaries without being subjected to the repercussions faced by the majority of non-player characters. As such, the Dragonborn is capable of subverting the very core dynamics of transgression, while holding a privileged social status within the video game’s rich and deeply fragmented world.

Rusty World: A Working Paper on Video Games and Social Class

This working paper provides a preliminary treatment of issues of social class in relation to the video game Rust as it is played on servers and streamed on Twitch. The paper uses the sociology of Pierre Bourdieu to explore Rust as a field and to describe the social class habitus of those who play and stream the game. &nbsp

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

“The Ending Has Not Yet Been Written”: How Myst, S., and Other Transmedia Creations Pay Tribute to the Analog in a Digital World

With the arrival of new media comes the age-old anxiety that more traditional media – namely tangible forms like the print book – will be displaced, abandoned, or forgotten entirely. However, the book continues to be incorporated into sculptures that surround libraries and clothing and tote bags that we purchase, signifying that the traditional codex holds a lasting place in our hearts. This paper argues that newer forms of media can function as outlets for our love of physical manuscripts and can renew our infatuation with them rather than threaten to replace them. Digital media like Rand and Robyn Miller’s 1993 computer game Myst, as well as transmedia like J.J. Abrams’ and Doug Dorst’s digitally-supplemented novel S. use immersive techniques to recreate the feeling of “losing ourselves” in a good book, intensifying a desire to explore and discover in the physical world and the virtual world alike. Moreover, this paper utilizes Jay David Botler’s and Richard Grusin’s theory of remediation to suggest that transmedia has the potential to inform new engagement with the physical world, as is evident in trends like escape rooms and geocaching.&nbsp

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