Critical Gameplay: Software Studies in Computer Gameplay

The computer game software with which we interact on a daily basis not only entertains us, it trains us into specific patterns. Critical Gameplay is a design practice which endeavors to expose and redesign the patterns to which standard gameplay subscribes. The ongoing project seeks to identify the dominant values, philosophies and problem solving models reinforced by computer games and provides prototypical alternates to those standards

Creating critical gameplay: Designing affective player experiences

Player emotions can be generated in a variety of ways. Encouraging the experience of critical thought - a type of gameplay experience which the players consider as having value beyond "fun" - is a key problem in both game design and my master thesis. The emotional affect associated with critical gameplay causes players to experience deep levels of personal significance and bonding, resulting in very deep and profound levels of engagement with the game. In this thesis work I explore the different practical techniques for designing such critical game experience in-game and suggest them as a direct toolkit game designers, level designers and game artists can use. By examining a variety of games across all genres and scales of production I suggest three key approaches that seem to be especially useful when trying to generate emotion in players that designers can directly apply and have control over: -Building Context, referring to the different approaches to audio-visual presentation, level/environmental design or making gameplay relevant to real world concepts. -Presenting Consequences of player actions in different ways in order to make players thoughtful and feel the impact of their actions in the game situation. -Utilizing Player Consent by using the nature of actions we are designing for players to participate in, to create tension - in many cases by asking players to commit to actions they might not be comfortable with outside of game context

Return of the man-machine interface: violent interactions

This paper presents the design and evaluation of “the man-machine interface” a punchable interface designed to criticise and react against the values inherent in modern systems that tacitly favour one type of user (linguistically and technically gifted) and alienate another (physically gifted). We report a user study, where participants used the device to express their opinions before engaging in a group discussion about the implications of strength-based interactions. We draw connections between our own work and that of evolutionary biologists whose recent findings indicate the shape of the human hand is likely to have been partly evolved for the purpose of punching, and conclude by examining violent force as an appropriate means for expressing thoughts and feelings

An analysis of persistent non-player characters in the first-person gaming genre 1998-2007: a case for the fusion of mechanics and diegetics

This paper describes the results of an analysis of persistent non-player characters (PNPCs) in the first-person gaming genre 1998-2007. Assessing the role, function, gameplay significance and representational characteristics of these critical important gameplay objects from over 34 major releases provides an important set of baseline data within which to situate further research. This kind of extensive, genre-wide analysis is under-represented in game studies, yet it represents a hugely important process in forming clear and robust illustrations of the medium to support understanding. Thus, I offer a fragment of this illustration, demonstrating that many of the cultural and diegetic qualities of PNPCs are a product of a self-assembling set of archetypes formed from gameplay requirements

Playing with Identity. Authors, Narrators, Avatars, and Players in The Stanley Parable and The Beginner’s Guide

This article offers a comparative analysis of Davey Wreden’s The Stanley Parable (Wreden 2011 / Galactic Cafe 2013) and The Beginner’s Guide (Everything Unlimited Ltd. 2015) in order to explore the interrelation of authors, narrators, avatars, and players as four salient functions in the play with identity that videogames afford. Building on theories of collective and collaborative authorship, of narratives and narrators across media, and of the avatar-player relationship, the article reconstructs the similarities and differences between the way in which The Stanley Parable and The Beginner’s Guide position their players in relation to the two games’ avatars, narrators, and (main) author, while also underscoring how both The Stanley Parable and The Beginner’s Guide use metareferential strategies to undermine any overly rigid conceptualization of these functions and their interrelation

Games Design Research through Game Design Practice

Whilst many game design academics are also game designers, their research is often presented through the lens of other disciplines (philosophy, media theory, human computer interaction [HCI], etc.) and practice-based design research is arguably underrepresented in the games research community. Although game design research espouses to open an inclusive community, at present, research approaches and the presentation of results is dominated by those inherited from either the social sciences or HCI. This dominance of loaded and prescriptive academic frameworks is arguably why many of those creating games outside academia feel such research is unrepresentative of their own practices

Divine intervention: Multimodal pragmatics and unconventional opposition in performed character speech in Dragon Age: Inquisition

Postponed access: the file will be available after 2022-10-11Videogames often take place in fictional worlds, yet the performed accents of game characters are real reflections of the language ideologies of a game’s creators and intended audience. This chapter demonstrates how these ideologies are at play in BioWare’s fantasy role-playing game Dragon Age: Inquisition (2014), through its linguistic differentiation of two characters, Cassandra and Leliana. Although largely presented as counter to one another, both are othered from the majority of in-game characters by way of their accented English. Videogames contain unique, medium-specific affordances; thus, using multimodal discourse analysis and procedural rhetoric, this chapter examines how Cassandra and Leliana’s accents construct social and ideological meaning, and how the performative nature of gameplay affects players’ perception of these characters.acceptedVersio

Playing distressed art: Adorno’s aesthetic theory in game design

The discussion on games as (not) art has been raging for decades without reaching a consensus. It is argued here that the ontological status of games is irrelevant for the perception and development of aesthetic experiences in videogames. Instead, game design should be regarded as ripe to convey the experience of art according  to established aesthetic theories. The essay presents Adorno’s aesthetic theory and highlights its reflections in the games Papers, Please and Observer. It then describes how they were synthesized into a  critical gameplay experience in the author’s game Distressed. The latter may be regarded as an example of a method in game studies in which the aesthetic potential of games is explored by creation rather than analysis. Arguably, this reveals the importance of epistemological approaches  towards games and art instead of the predominant ontological ones

Διερευνώντας το πλαίσιο σχεδιασμού παιγνιώδους εικονικού περιβάλλοντος ενάντια στην έμφυλη βία

Η διπλωματική εργασία με τίτλο “ Διερευνώντας το πλαίσιο σχεδιασμού παιγνιώδους εικονικού περιβάλλοντος ενάντια στην έμφυλη βία” μελετά την διαδικασία σχεδιασμού μιας εμπειρίας χρησιμοποιώντας το μέσο βιντεοπαιχνιδιών για την μετουσίωση μιας ιστορίας εκδίκησης βιασμού. Έχοντας βιώσει πρόσφατα την άνοδο του κινήματος #Metoo τόσο σε παγκόσμιο όσο και σε εγχώριο επίπεδο, θεωρούμε ότι η βιβλιογραφική ανασκόπηση γύρω από τον σχεδιασμό ενός βιντεοπαιχνιδιού με έμφυλο χαρακτήρα δύναται να συμβάλει στον εμπλουτισμό της συζήτησης στο χώρο της φεμινιστικής ακαδημαϊκής έρευνας στα βιντεοπαιχνίδια. Επιλέχθηκε συγκεκριμένα το μέσο των βιντεοπαιχνιδιών, αφενός, επειδή τα περισσότερα παιχνίδια που κυριαρχούν στην αγορά όχι μόνο είναι βίαια και δεν παρέχουν θετικές αναπαραστάσεις γυναικών, αλλά και επικεντρώνονται στην σεξουαλικοποίηση των γυναικείων χαρακτήρων (Mendes et al,2011). Αφετέρου, επιλέξαμε να μελετήσουμε τα βιντεοπαιχνίδια, επειδή πρόκειται για ένα δημιουργικό μέσο όπου το κοινό δεν είναι απλός θεατής, όπως στα υπόλοιπα οπτικά μέσα. Το βλέμμα στα βιντεοπαιχνίδια (gaming gazing) είναι εξερεύνηση, δημιουργία, αντίδραση, μορφοποίηση.Το ερευνητικό ερώτημα της παρούσας βιβλιογραφικής ανασκόπησης χωρίζεται σε δύο μέρη. Στο πρώτο μέρος εξετάζει ποια είναι τα χαρακτηριστικά και η διαδικασία για να σχεδιαστεί ένα βιντεοπαιχνίδι. Το δεύτερο μέρος διερευνά πως αναπαρίσταται η γυναίκα στα βιντεοπαιχνίδια και πως αναπαρίσταται το ζήτημα της εκδίκησης της σεξουαλικής βίας στον κινηματογράφο και τα βιντεοπαιχνίδια.The thesis “Exploring the design framework of gamified virtual environment against gender-based violence” studies the process of designing an experience using the medium of video games to narrate a rape revenge story. Having recently experienced the rise of the #Metoo movement, both globally and domestically, we believe that a literature review around the design of a gendered video game can enrich the discussion in the field of feminist academic research in video games. The medium of video games was specifically chosen, on the one hand, because most games that dominate the market are not only violent and do not provide positive representations of women, but also focus on the sexualization of female characters (Mendes et al, 2011). On the other hand, we chose to study video games because it is a creative medium where the audience is not a mere spectator, as in other visual media. Gaming gazing is exploration, creation, reaction.The research question of the present literature review is divided into two parts. In the first part it looks at what the features and process are to design a video game. The second part explores how women are represented in video games and how the issue of revenge for sexual violence is represented in film and video games