The False Dichotomy between Positive and Negative Affect in Game Play

Most of the time games make us happy, but sometimes they are frustrating or make us feel sad. They allow us to experience pleasure, success and joy, but they can also yield feelings of frustration, failure, or sorrow as a result of darker themes. In games, we can experience the full range of emotions – both positive and negative. The workshop goals are to: 1) Investigate positive affect, negative affect, and the interplay between positive and negative affect as a means to create powerful gaming experiences; 2) Identify gaps in our existing knowledge regarding the full range of emotional experiences in games and their impact on the player and play experience; 3) Determine directions for research to advance knowledge in this space; and, 4) Create a community of people interested in developing games that involve powerful and meaningful player experiences. The organizers will provide the structure, questions, scaffolding of discussions, and workshop materials; whereas the participants will provide ideas through positions papers and discussion

De héros à zéro: réflexions sur les manifestations et les effets de la faiblesse dans le jeu vidéo

Ce mémoire de maîtrise se concentre sur les manifestations et les effets de la faiblesse dans les jeux vidéo, notamment au sein de la relation entre le joueur et le ou les personnages qu’il contrôle. Les œuvres vidéoludiques ancrées dans la tradition de la masculinité militarisée ont tendance à avoir une représentation peu diversifiée et inclusive de personnages qui vont au-delà de l’homme blanc cisgenre et hétérosexuel. La faiblesse vidéoludique se veut comme un mouvement de résistance à l’égard des conventions de cette culture hégémonique tout en offrant au joueur une expérience qui ne semble pas positive au premier regard, mais ultimement plus gratifiante. Ce mémoire analyse quelques exemples de personnages virtuels qui se trouvent au sein de cette tension entre puissance et faiblesse.This master thesis focuses on the manifestations and effects of weakness in video games, present most notably within the relationship between the player and the character(s) she controls. Video games anchored into the traditions of the militarized masculinity usually do not have a propension to include a more diverse and inclusive cast of characters, far away from the cisgender heterosexual white male. Weakness within video games is intended to be a resistance movement against these hegemonic cultural conventions while offering the player a gaming experience that does not seem positive at first, but is ultimately more gratifying. This master thesis contains some examples of virtual characters that finds themselves between power and weakness