Narrative Storytelling In VR Through Gaming

Gaming has consistently been acknowledged as a storytelling medium for its signature ability to provide user interaction. As virtual reality becomes a more prominent gaming environment, it will be expected to carry on the tradition of storytelling. Currently, virtual reality is in a state of infancy, where products offer little sophistication and serve as amusements rather than storytellers. As this changeover takes effect, there are certain discrepancies which will hinder a transition from flat screen gaming to virtual reality gaming. In order to create a successful narrative driven virtual reality game, these discrepancies must be addressed in a meaningful way. This thesis will also experiment with the aforementioned differences by developing a virtual reality game in Unreal Engine 4

Pacman's canon in C#: a quantum interpretation of video game canon.

The topic of what constitutes canon with a video game is an under-explored topic in critical discussion. We rely, as a field, on largely intuitive and insubstantial parameters for the elements that we choose to analyse. This paper outlines the role of canon in the creation of popular media franchises, and the specific complexities that arise from treating video games as part of the same broad spectrum as more passive media such as books and movies. It puts forward a theory of canonicty that allows for all expression of player agency to be canonical simultaneously for the purposes of analysis and discussion-this is a kind of quantum interpretation. It concludes with an argument as to why what we consider to be viable canonical elements within video games must be tightly constrained if we are to give ourselves the best intellectual base from which to function

“It’s Dangerous to Go Alone”: An Autoethnography of College English Students Reading Video Games as Texts

My dissertation research studies the use of video games as texts for analysis in a College English course. The purpose of the study was to see what happens when College English students are asked to engage with a video game as a class text, use their engagement with a video game to make sense of other texts, and how reader-response theory applies to making meaning of video games as texts. A secondary purpose was to study, if this transaction does take place, whether video games can support the kind of analysis required of a College English curriculum and what this curriculum might look like. I conducted this study as an autoethnography of a course designed for this purpose as the course instructor. Observing my students’ participation and analyzing their written work served as the primary data, as well as self-reflection on my own meaning-making processes. My final observations suggest that students engaged with the video game as a class text, though not more than they might have any other text; however, the nature of playing the text (and the multiple interpretations that afforded individual students) encouraged a critical reading in which students readily participated. For this reason, game choice was of paramount importance, that it might align with learning objectives but was accessible to a wide variety of prior experience with video games. Finally, a committee of department faculty deemed the majority of student work as of the quality expected for the course, suggesting video games can serve as texts for analysis that the field expects of its students. The implications of this study should inform English Education’s adaption to teaching the multiple literacies of the 21st century, as this research itself is multimodal and requires multiple literacies to read. This choice of research method and format was also meant to serve as examples of the transactions I and students experienced in the study

Ethical and professional complications in the construction of multi-developer hobbyist games.

The modern availability of powerful video game development frameworks has resulted in something of an indie renaissance. Within this blossoming of small scale development are numerous hobbyist developers who build games for their own inherent satisfaction rather than with the expectation of any financial remuneration. While many of these individuals labour in isolation, some have undertaken projects of sufficient scale and complexity to require the recruitment of multiple developers over long periods of time. The lack of direct payment for volunteered efforts in such environments creates numerous interpersonal issues that must be considered?these relate to aspects of intellectual property ownership and the treatment of developers, as well as to the expectations of those players who may invest their time in a hobbyist title. The nature of recruitment for such projects is such that formal experience in software development or games design cannot be assumed, and the management complexities this paradigm introduces are of sufficient complexity that few tools are available to ensure the coherent development of a game. This paper is a reflective analysis of the issues that emerged through the development of one such game. The observations contained within however are applicable to all multi-developer projects where financial compensation for contributions are likely to be non-existent

You are likely to be eaten by a grue: How computer games are consuming modern culture

Computer games represent an area of untapped, unappreciated potential in the human-computer relationship. Having long been considered low culture and unworthy of scholarly attention, the focus on games is intensifying as the field of ludology emerges. The first game was created forty years ago, and since then games have branched out from their traditionally young male user base and gained popularity with both adults and females. Violence in and addiction to games remain controversial topics, but the threat posed by games fades a bit in comparison to the fascinating insights they give us into literature, art, and cinema. Their cultural impact is also evidenced by the wave of nostalgia that is bringing back video games from the 1970\u27s and 80\u27s. Online gaming is changing the way people experience interactive entertainment in their homes, and massive multi-player online worlds are edging closer to becoming simulations of offline society. The significance of computer games can no longer be denied, and their future is bright as technology and game theory continue to create astounding and entertaining virtual worlds

How do institutions approach the use and preservation of videogames in their collections?

Videogames are one of the most popular forms of entertainment both internationally and in the UK today. In recognition of this popularity, museums are treating videogames as culturally, socially and technologically significant objects that visitors can learn about and enjoy. Similarly, many universities are now offering courses in subjects such as game design and videogame studies and as part of this, offer videogame collections to use and borrow from their institutional libraries. In the US and Canada, many academic libraries already have more established videogame collections built over the past decade, but in the UK, there are very limited examples of university libraries offering similar services. Videogames also provide a challenge for conservators and others interested in preservation, with issues such as physical decay, bit rot and the complex copyright nature of videogames needing constant solutions. This project outlines a brief history of videogames and the current state of the videogame industry before going on to investigate how six different international institutions are approaching the use and preservation of their videogame collections. The institutions involved are The Centre for Computing History (UK), Living Computers: Museums + Labs, Videogames: Design/Play/Disrupt Exhibition (The Victoria & Albert Museum, UK), Fraser Library (Simon Fraser University, Canada), The Computer & Video Game Archive (University of Michigan Library, US) and Goldsmiths Library (Goldsmiths, University of London, UK). Interviews were completed with staff at these institutions and using coding, differences and similarities were identified in their approaches and discussed in detail, along with recommendations for areas of further research on this topic