The motivational landscape of first-person shooter games

Abstract. The purpose of this research was to gain better understanding of the motivations to play video games, particularly first-person shooter games. The aim was therefore to produce a motivational landscape that describes and categorizes the main motivations to play first-person shooter games (FPS). The study tries to expand the understanding of motivations to play. Therefore, qualitative research method was chosen for gaining a better understanding. The chosen research strategy is case study and the cases used in this study are Battlefield 3 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. These two cases represent popular games in FPS-genre. The empirical material was collected by using semi-structured interviews. Total of seven (7) persons were interviewed for this study. All interviewees were Finnish males (ages 22–28) that are experienced gamers. This study expands the motivation research of gaming. From the academic standpoint, the study offers an empirically grounded categorization for analyzing the motivations to play FPS-games: achievement, learning, social interaction, entertainment and escapism. The study gives structure to a complex and elusive subject of motivation, deepens the understanding of the content of the categories and reveals the underlying processes behind it. In addition, the study makes a division between intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. From managerial standpoint, the study offers comprehensive and balanced structure for evaluating games in terms of their motivational appeal and may therefore help in game development. Game developers should understand that the game needs to provide enough intrinsic motivation to keep players interested. Extrinsic motivation should be used as something that enhances the gameplay experience without destroying it. In-depth understanding of the player’s motivations to play is a vital part of every game company’s business decision-making practices. Video game companies should consider motivations to play when they design monetization models for their games. From a societal standpoint, the parents of gamers could benefit from this study by understanding more of what is actually happening when their children play FPS-games

Experimental Approaches to the Composition of Interactive Video Game Music

This project explores experimental approaches and strategies to the composition of interactive music for the medium of video games. Whilst music in video games has not enjoyed the technological progress that other aspects of the software have received, budgets expand and incomes from releases grow. Music is now arguably less interactive than it was in the 1990’s, and whilst graphics occupy large amounts of resources and development time, audio does not garner the same attention. This portfolio develops strategies and audio engines, creating music using the techniques of aleatoric composition, real-time remixing of existing work, and generative synthesisers. The project created music for three ‘open-form’ games : an example of the racing genre (Kart Racing Pro); an arena-based first-person shooter (Counter-Strike : Source); and a real-time strategy title (0 A.D.). These games represent a cross-section of ‘sandbox’- type games on the market, as well as all being examples of games with open-ended or open-source code

A CA perspective on kills and deaths in Counter-Strike : Global Offensive video game play

The interest in studying multiplayer video game play has been growing since the mid-2000s. This is in part due to growing interest in games that are part of eSports settings such as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO), which is one of the main games within eSports, and is the video game that is studied in this paper. Studies of multiplayer video game play from a conversation analysis (CA) participant perspective appear to be scarce, although they are steadily becoming a legitimate topic in ethnomethodological conversation analytical (EMCA) studies. EMCA studies have mostly focused on aspects around the screen, and on how physically present players interact and draw upon resources both on- and off-screen. Some studies have taken the CA perspective further and blur the on-/off-screen dichotomy to better understand on-screen actions as social actions worthy of study. The aim of this article is to describe and gain new understanding of how participants socially organize their game play with a focus on sequentiality and accountability connected to “kills” (K) and “deaths” (D) in CS:GO. The social organizational structure of game play connected to K- and D-events in CS:GO can be described as a set of “rules” that participants orient to. In short, these rules appear to encompass communication efficiency: K-events are more often other-topicalized, and D-events are more often self-topicalized; spectating provides more sequential and temporal space for topicalization; and D-events are oriented to as more problematic events in need of further negotiation. In-and-through describing the social organization connected to K- and D-events from a participant’s perspective, it becomes evident that “killing” and “dying” in-game is not oriented to in a literal fashion. They are oriented to as frequent events that are basic parts of the game’s mechanics and of playing the game to win or lose.publishedVersio

Professional Counter-Strike: An Analysis of Media Objects, Esports Culture, and Gamer Representation

Esports are growing in popularity at a rapid pace worldwide. In contemporary society, individuals watch esports broadcasts as part of their normal media consuming practices. This dissertation focuses on Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO), which is currently the most recognized first-person shooter esport worldwide and the third most popular game across all esports genres (Irwin & Naweed, 2020). Interested in how the cultural knowledge and experience of esports and gamers who populate the scene are represented in media, I explored professional CS:GO esports broadcasts from two prominent professional leagues, ESL Pro League (EPL) and ELEAGUE. A thematic analysis of textual and audio-visual data from professional CS:GO broadcasts revealed that esports culture is a novel phenomenon, similar to sport, but situated within video games. Using traditional sports metaphors and comparisons, as well as sportscast style match coverage and gameplay reporting, EPL and ELEAGUE illustrate CS:GO as a global sport. At the same time, both leagues emphasize technicity and rely on gamer jargon to frame professional CS:GO as a hybrid mediasport, intrinsically tied to game culture. EPL and ELEAGUE utilize narratives and images to portray gamers as simultaneously geeks and jocks by highlighting players’ traditional sports backgrounds while also describing them as “natural gamers.” Finally, EPL and ELEAGUE represent gamers as young males who are mostly white, offering audiences a limited worldview that supports a dominant social, cultural, and global ideology

Digital game involvement : a conceptual model

This article proposes a conceptual model for understanding game involvement and immersion on a variety of experiential dimensions corresponding to six broad categories of game features. The article ends with a proposal to replace the metaphor of immersion with one of incorporation. This reconceptualization seeks to replace the unidirectional plunge of player into game space implied by the term immersion with one of simultaneous assimilation of the digital environment and presence to others within it.peer-reviewe

Coordinating teamplay using named locations in a multilingual game environment - Playing esports in an educational context

Author's accepted version (postprint).This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Classroom Discourse on 03/02/2022.Available online: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19463014.2021.2024444acceptedVersio

'Technic' practices of the computer game Lanner: identity development through the LAN-gameplay experience

This thesis is a reception analysis using qualitative interviews to investigate the formation of cultural groups around computer-game LANs present in Rhodes University. It also looks at how issues of social inequalities evident on the university's campus impact on the participation of students in these LANs. The findings of this study are that the participants have established a community around the practice of computer LAN-gameplay based on values developed through the combination of the material and gameworlds. It serves as a home-on-campus for them; where they can fully explore their passion for games thus reaffirming their identity as gamers on a campus where being a gamer is viewed negatively. In this light, computer-game playing is not just a practice these participants perform, but a culture they live out every day. This is a culture predominantly lived out by men. One of the reasons for this is because most women have been raised to believe to have negative predispositions about digital gaming e.g. that it is childish, addictive and anti-social, but also that computer are meant to be used by men - women use them only when it is absolutely necessary, for example, that it is childish, for academic-related purposes. As a result, not many of them will use computers for any otherreason for fear of being socially criticised. In addition, the gaming culture being dominated by whites is due to the fact that admittance in to this community is still unaffordable for the majority of black students on the Rhodes University campus as a result of their social backgrounds

Perception and Periodization: Video Game Perspective as Symbolic Form

This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Studies in Control Societies via http://studiesincontrolsocieties.org/perception-and-periodization/