15 research outputs found
Game | World | Architectonics
In its current digital, pictorial and viral ubiquity, architecture no longer has to be bodily present, but has a mediating role. As a medial hinge it folds different disciplines of media and art onto the realm of the everyday. Here, the idea of architectonics can be understood as the architectural implications of computer games in a broader sense to address the matter of architecture in game worlds as well as the architecture of computer games themselves.
This anthology bundles transdisciplinary approaches around the topics of space, architecture, perception of and worldbuilding in computer games and their media-specific properties. The aim is to show how and under which aspects digital game worlds are constituted. The contributions depart from the beaten tracks of media and game studies, focusing on spatial, architectural and world-shaped phenomena within current digital media culture.In ihrer aktuellen digitalen, bildlichen wie auch viralen UbiquitĂ€t muss Architektur nicht mehr körperlich prĂ€sent sein und doch fĂŒllt sie eine vermittelnde Rolle aus. Als mediales Scharnier verschrĂ€nkt sie unterschiedliche Disziplinen der Medien und KĂŒnste mit der Alltagswirklichkeit. Das Konzept der Architektonik umschreibt hierbei in weitem Sinne die architektonischen Implikationen der Computerspiele, um Architektur in Spielwelten als auch die Architektur der Computerspiele selbst greifbar zu machen.
Dieser Sammelband bĂŒndelt transdisziplinĂ€re Zugriffe rund um die Themen Raum, Architektur, Wahrnehmung von und Weltenbau in Computerspielen und deren medienspezifischen Eigenschaften. Ziel ist es aufzuzeigen, wie und unter welchen Aspekten sich digitale Spielwelten konstituieren. Die BeitrĂ€ge verlassen dabei ausgetretene Pfade von Medienwissenschaft und Game Studies und fokussieren auf die rĂ€umlichen, architektonischen und weltförmigen PhĂ€nomene aktueller digitaler Medienkultur
Architectonics of Game Spaces: The Spatial Logic of the Virtual and Its Meaning for the Real
What consequences does the design of the virtual yield for architecture and to what extent can the nature of architecture be used productively to turn game-worlds into sustainable places - over here, in "reality"? This pioneering collection gives an overview of contemporary developments in designing video games and of the relationships such practices have established with the design of architecture. Due to their often simulatory nature, games reveal constructions of reality while positively impacting spatial ability and allowing for alternative avenues to complex topics and processes of negotiation. Granting insight into the merging of the design of real and virtual environments, this volume offers an invaluable platform for further debate
Architectonics of Game Spaces
What consequences does the design of the virtual yield for architecture and to what extent can the nature of architecture be used productively to turn game-worlds into sustainable places - over here, in »reality«? This pioneering collection gives an overview of contemporary developments in designing video games and of the relationships such practices have established with the design of architecture. Due to their often simulatory nature, games reveal constructions of reality while positively impacting spatial ability and allowing for alternative avenues to complex topics and processes of negotiation. Granting insight into the merging of the design of real and virtual environments, this volume offers an invaluable platform for further debate
Architectonics of Game Spaces
What consequences does the design of the virtual yield for architecture and to what extent can the nature of architecture be used productively to turn game-worlds into sustainable places - over here, in »reality«? This pioneering collection gives an overview of contemporary developments in designing video games and of the relationships such practices have established with the design of architecture. Due to their often simulatory nature, games reveal constructions of reality while positively impacting spatial ability and allowing for alternative avenues to complex topics and processes of negotiation. Granting insight into the merging of the design of real and virtual environments, this volume offers an invaluable platform for further debate
Interstory: A Study of Reader Participation and Networked Narrative in Media Convergence
Recently we have seen the proliferation of narratives developing in media convergence: simultaneously on websites, blogs, multimedia platforms, books, magazines, etc. In this thesis, I propose the term interstory to characterize this narrative tendency. Interstory is a narrative constituted by a network of story pieces published in different media and compiled by readers. To illustrate the concept of interstory I take as a study case HernĂĄn Casciariâs and Christian Basilisâ Orsai, which in two years has incorporated into its narrative three blogs, a print magazine, and a web magazine. Orsai has been a successful project thanks to the formation of a solid online/offline community of readers around it. Because of the media characteristics and large-scale of the object under examination, I propose a methodology for the study of narrative as a network composed of authors, texts, media of publication, readers, and readersâ input. This has allowed the exploration of which narrative contents are encompassed by the project, where they are published, when and where, as well as how the readersâ respond to them. A methodology for the study of readersâ practices in Orsaiâs different media was also developed. I propose that narrative is by no means in crisis in the digital age. As a matter of fact, readers are avid participants of narrative enterprises building a highly prosocial environment of interaction. Nonetheless, as I show in this thesis, the expectations of readers and the media currently available are having an impact on how narrative is created, distributed and consumed
Cows, unicorns, and bulletproof glass
Die vorliegende Diplomarbeit nimmt derzeitige Ergebnisse der
IntermedialitĂ€tsforschung als den Ausgangspunkt fĂŒr die Untersuchung von
Videospielen. Unter Zuhilfenahme der Forschung zur SelbstreferentialitÀt
verschiedener Medien, und insbesondere des Konzeptes der âMetareferenzâ,
die einen Sonderfall der Selbstreferenz darstellt und darauf abzielt, im
Rezipienten ein gewisses âMetabewusstseinâ hervorzurufen und ihn oder sie zur
Reflektion ĂŒber die FiktionalitĂ€t oder MedialitĂ€t eines gegebenen Werkes
anzuregen, zielt die Arbeit darauf ab, die zentralen Typen und Funktionen von
metareferenzieller Selbstreferenz in Videospielen zu untersuchen. Zu
Analysezwecken entlehnt sie dabei Einsichten aus der jungen Disziplin der
âGame Studiesâ, die bereits eine Vielzahl nĂŒtzlicher theoretischer und
analytischer Werkzeuge zur Untersuchung von Videospielen hervorgebracht
hat. Dieser Ansatz soll zeigen, dass Videospiele nicht nur als interaktive Filme
zu verstehen sind, sondern dass gerade die formale, regelbasierte Seite das
Spiel in Spielen generell und Videospielen speziell ĂŒberhaupt erst ermöglicht.
Verbunden mit dem âMetabewusstseinâ, das bestimmte Objekte in Videospielen
hervorrufen können, soll gezeigt werden, dass gerade das Wissen um die
MedialitĂ€t und FiktionalitĂ€t, das durch solche Objekte aufgerufen wird, fĂŒr viele
Spieler ein zusÀtzlicher Anreiz sein kann, und dass sich insbesondere
regelmĂ€Ăige Spieler ĂŒber solche Herausforderungen ihres Wissens um das
Medium freuen können. Basierend auf mehreren Ăbersichten von theoretischen
und analytischen Werkzeugen beider Disziplinen und/oder
Forschungsperspektiven enthÀlt die Arbeit eine Analyse von Beispielen der
Metareferenz in mehreren verschiedenen Spielen aus zwei groĂen
Videospielgattungen, dem Rollenspiel und dem Shooter, in ihren letztgĂŒltigen
Fassungen: dem 3D Rollenspiel und dem 3D Shooter. Die gewonnenen
Einsichten aus den Beispielen fĂŒr Metareferenz in diesen Spielen zeigen, dass
in diesen beiden relativ âhermetischenâ Gattungen, zumindest hinsichtlich der
relativen âFlĂŒssigkeitâ des Mediums Videospiel, Metareferenz durchaus als eine
zusĂ€tzliche Attraktion fĂŒr fleiĂige Spieler gesehen werden und verwendet
werden kann. Spielentwickler, die vorrangig Spiele, die zu diesen beiden
Gattungen zu zÀhlen wÀren, produzieren, können Metareferenz dazu
verwenden, um durch diese mit ihren Hardcore-Fans zu kommunizieren, und
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einzelne Beispiele der Metareferenz können daher sowohl als Belohnung fĂŒr
fleiĂige Spieler gesehen werden, die zusĂ€tzliche Unterhaltung bieten, als auch
als eine Möglichkeit, die Liebhaber dieser âGenre Gamesâ an beiden Enden des
Produktes zu konsolidieren: Entwickler und Spieler sind vereint in einer
âCommunityâ, die sich um die Spiele der Wahl dreht und den gegenseitigen
Ideenaustausch ermöglicht.
Die Diplomarbeit enthÀlt 15 digitale Bilder, die die Diskussionen
untermauern sollen.The present diploma thesis takes current research in intermedia studies as a
starting point for researching video games. Using research into the selfreferentiality
of different media, and, more specifically, the concept of
metareference, which is a special case of self-reference that aims at eliciting
âmeta-awarenessâ in the recipient and causing him to reflect upon the fictionality
or mediality of a given work, the thesis attempts to unearth the central types and
functions of metareferential self-reference in the video game. For analytical
purposes, it draws inspirations from the new discipline of Game Studies, which
has developed a large amount of useful theoretical and analytical tools for the
analysis of video games. This approach has the purpose of showing that video
games should not merely be understood as interactive movies, but that the
formal, rule-based layer is what enables game play in games in general and
video games in particular in the first place. Combined with the âmeta-awarenessâ
that specific game objects attempt to trigger, the thesis shows that exactly the
knowledge of the mediality and fictionality which are called upon by such
objects can be a further attraction for many players, and that especially regular
players will often welcome such challenges of their knowledge of the medium.
Based on overviews of theoretical and analytical tools from both disciplines, it
contains an analysis of instances of metareference in several games from two
main genres, the role-playing game (RPG) and the shooter in their latest
iterations: 3D RPGs and 3D Shooters. The insights drawn from examples of
metareference in these games show that in these two rather âhermeticâ genres,
in terms of the general fluidity of the video game medium, metareference can be
used as an attraction for dedicated players. Game designers producing
primarily games that belong to these two genres can use metareference to
communicate with their hardcore fans through the game, and individual
instances of metareference are therefore both a reward for dedicated players
which provide additional entertainment, and a way to consolidate lovers of these
âgenre gamesâ on both ends of the product: designers and players joint in a
community around their genre games of choice and exchanging ideas.
The thesis contains 15 digital images (screenshots) to illustrate the
discussions